The Federal Trade Commission has issued its latest report to Congress on protecting older adults, which highlights key trends based on fraud reports by older adults, and the FTC’s efforts to combat the problem through law enforcement actions, rulemaking, and outreach and education programs.
“Protecting older consumers from predatory practices is a top priority, and our report highlights the many steps we’ve been taking,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We’ll continue to bring aggressive cases, engage in proactive outreach and research, and work closely with others, including in our new Advisory Group formed under the Stop Senior Scams Act.”
The report, Protecting Older Consumers, 2021-2022, A Report of the Federal Trade Commission, finds that in 2021 older adults reported significantly higher losses to investment scams, business impersonation scams and government impersonation scams than they did in 2020:
- Investment scams: $147 million reported lost, up 213 percent from 2020.
- Business impersonation scams: $151 million reported lost, up 134 percent from 2020.
- Government impersonation scams: $122 million reported lost, up 109 percent from 2020.
As in prior years, the analysis of fraud reports received by the FTC in 2021 showed that adults aged 60 and over were substantially less likely to report losing money to fraud than adults aged 20-59. When they did report losing money, though, they tended to report…
