Federal estimates put the cost of fraud against adults 60 and older in 2025 somewhere between $13.3 billion and $119.5 billion. That is a striking range, but it is not a count of money confirmed lost, and it does not tell any one person the odds of being targeted. The figures mix different ways of estimating harm with reports from people who chose to contact the government. Reading them carefully means keeping those measures separate.
What the federal totals measure
The Federal Trade Commission’s annual report to Congress gives a range for the full cost of fraud against older adults: $13.3 billion to $119.5 billion, depending on the method used. The information available here does not explain how either estimate is calculated. Treat the range as an estimate, not as a verified count of dollars taken from older adults’ accounts.
A separate figure comes from reports made to the Consumer Sentinel Network, which collects reports about fraud and other consumer problems. People 60 and older reported losing more than $3 billion in 2025, according to the FTC report as summarized in a news account. That number reflects reports submitted to the system, not every fraud that occurred.
The FTC says most frauds are not reported to the government. That means the reported-loss figure likely captures only part of the harm. It also means the data cannot, on their own, show how many older adults experienced fraud or what share of all older adults lost money. The FTC’s report provides the federal context, while the figures discussed here describe different measures of the problem.
Why a national total does not show individual risk
A total can rise sharply because a small number of people report very large losses. In 2025, reports of losses above $100,000 made up 6% of older adults’ loss reports, but accounted for 70% of the more than $3 billion reported lost. The number of reports involving six-figure losses rose from 1,136 in 2020 to 6,769 in 2025.
Those figures describe the concentration of reported dollars. They do not say that 6% of older adults lost more than $100,000, or that a typical person faces a particular chance of a large loss. The denominator is loss reports, not all older adults. A total is shaped by both the number of reports and the size of the losses in them.
The median helps answer a different question. The median is the middle reported loss: half of reported losses were smaller and half were larger. For adults 60 and older, the median reported loss was about $900 in 2025. For people 80 and older, it was $2,000, up 21% from 2024. A median describes a typical report more directly than a national total does, but it still does not predict what will happen to an individual.
The FTC report also says older adults reported losing money at lower rates than younger adults and filed no-loss reports at much higher rates. The available information does not explain why. Those comparisons should not be turned into a simple claim about who is more vulnerable. Reporting behavior and the kinds of incidents people report may affect what appears in the data.
Patterns in reported losses
Investment scams accounted for a large and growing share of reported losses among older adults. Those losses rose 42% in 2025 to more than $1 billion. Government impersonation ranked second in reported losses, followed by business impersonation. Within business impersonation, fake bank representatives caused the most reported damage.
Many reported scams use a similar pressure tactic. Someone claims to represent the FTC, a bank, or another trusted organization and says money is in danger. The caller then tells the person to move funds. Instructions can include mailing cash, handing it to a courier, buying gift cards, or depositing money at a bitcoin ATM. A scammer may also coach the person on what to say to bank staff or tell them not to discuss the transaction with family or friends.
Investment scams can start through social media and then steer people toward cryptocurrency. Older adults most often reported losing money to fraud that began on social media when measured by total dollars. Credit cards were the payment method reported most often, but bank transfers and cryptocurrency accounted for the largest total losses. Frequency and total dollars therefore point to different parts of the pattern.
Two figures, two different scales
Warning signs in the reported scripts
The FTC says a government agency will never tell someone to move money to protect it. A request to transfer funds for safekeeping is a warning sign, particularly if the caller directs payment through a bank transfer, cryptocurrency, gift card, or bitcoin ATM. A caller’s claim to represent a familiar organization does not make the request safe.
Secrecy and urgency are also important clues in the reported cases. Be alert to instructions not to speak with bank staff, relatives, or friends, and to pressure to keep putting money into an investment first encountered on social media. A few plain questions can help identify the script: Is the caller asking for money to be moved? Are they telling you to keep the transaction secret? Are they asking for cash delivered by courier, gift cards, or a bitcoin ATM?
These are general warning signs, not a way to assess every individual situation. The sources summarized here do not explain how to report a fraud, where to seek help after a loss, or whether a bank transfer or cryptocurrency payment can be reversed. The FTC’s consumer resources are the place to check for current information on those steps. The central point in the statistics is narrower: national loss totals show the scale of reported and estimated harm, but they do not provide an individual risk score.
Please seek a professional. This article is general information, not financial, tax or insurance advice. Please seek a licensed financial, tax or insurance professional about your own situation.
