Elder Fraud Loss Statistics
Reported fraud losses for victims aged 60 and over, drawn from FTC and FBI IC3 annual reports and the FTC's Protecting Older Consumers series.
Last reviewed: 7 July 2026
Adults aged 60 and over are targeted disproportionately by certain high-value fraud types and, when victimised, typically lose far more per incident than younger adults. Both the FTC and FBI IC3 publish dedicated elder fraud data.
All figures below are from named official reports. Under-reporting is a particular concern with older adults, who may not know where to report or may feel reluctant to do so.
Key figures
$7.748 billion across 201,266 complaints — a 37% increase in complaints and a 59% increase in losses on 2024
Reported losses by adults 60 and older (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
$4.3 billion lost by people age 50 and older, compared with $2.3 billion among younger adults
FTC reported losses: adults 50+ vs younger adults (2025)
Source: AARP, citing 2025 FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data (2025)
$38,500, with 12,444 complainants losing more than $100,000
Average loss per victim aged 60 and over (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
Investment: $3,519,296,354; Tech/Customer Support: $1,040,730,043; Confidence/Romance: $584,032,745
Top loss categories for adults 60+ (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
$4,347,081,557 across 42,271 complaints
Crypto-related losses among adults 60+ (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
$257,466,130 across 6,188 complaints
Cryptocurrency ATM and kiosk losses among adults 60+ (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
$568,048,472 across 4,566 complaints, up from $385,001,099 in 2024
Business Email Compromise losses among adults 60+ (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
642 Financial Fraud Kill Chain incidents covering $65,367,648 in reported losses, of which $32,865,655 was frozen
Recovery Asset Team freezes for victims aged 60+ (FBI IC3 2025)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report (2025)
Nearly $4.9 billion from over 147,000 complaints — a 43% increase on 2023
Reported fraud losses by adults 60 and over (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
$83,000 — compared to just over $19,000 across all age groups
Average loss per victim aged 60 and over (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
$2.4 billion — up fourfold from $600 million in 2020
Reported fraud losses by adults 60 and over (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
Combined losses from these high-value reports increased eightfold, from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024
Older adults reporting losses of more than $100,000 (FTC 2024 vs 2020)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
Investment scams — older adults lost more to investment fraud than to any other fraud type in 2024
Top fraud type by losses for adults 60 and over (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
147,127 complaints and $4.885 Billion in losses — a 46% increase in complaints and a 43% increase in losses from 2023
Exact 60+ complaint and loss totals (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
7,500 complainants lost more than $100K, with an $83,000 average loss for the 60+ group
Older adults losing more than $100K in a single incident (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
Investment: $1,834,242,515; Tech Support: $982,440,006
Top loss categories for adults 60+ (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
$2.8 billion in 2024, up from $1.65 billion in 2023 and $1.08 billion in 2022
Crypto-related losses among adults 60+, three-year trend (FBI IC3)
Source: CoinDesk, citing the FBI's 2024 IC3 Annual Report (2024)
Key takeaways
- Adults aged 60 and over reported nearly $4.9 billion in fraud losses to the FBI IC3 in 2024 — 43% more than in 2023.
- The average IC3-reported loss for a victim aged 60 or over was $83,000, more than four times the all-ages average.
- FTC data show a fourfold increase in losses for older adults from 2020 to 2024.
- The number of older adults losing $100,000 or more grew eightfold in that same period.
Frequently asked questions
Are older adults more likely to be defrauded than younger people?
The data show that older adults are more likely to suffer larger individual losses, but younger adults actually report losing money to a scam more often by proportion. The difference lies in the type of scam: older adults are more heavily targeted by high-value investment, tech support, and government impersonation schemes, which produce larger per-incident losses. Both groups face significant fraud risk.