Keeping older adults safe from fraud and scams is a top priority for the FTC. That commitment is reflected in the agency’s long history of law enforcement actions against scammers and our robust outreach and education programs. Now, as part of the Stop Senior Scams Act, the FTC is bringing together an Advisory Group of federal agency partners, consumer advocates, and industry representatives to focus on ways we can better identify and stop scams that affect older adults.
The FTC’s most recent report on protecting older consumers tells us that adults aged 60 and over are substantially less likely to report losing money to fraud than younger people. But when they do report losing money to frauds — like online shopping scams, tech support scams, or romance scams — they are losing thousands of dollars. (For more on this data, visit ftc.gov/exploredata.)