Fraud among older Americans is skyrocketing

The Street

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why fraud among those 60 and over is so prevalent.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:05Wall Street is on edge over the escalation

00:08of military tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

00:11Those worries are overshadowing good news at home.

00:14Walmart, the world's largest retailer,

00:16topped quarterly forecasts and boosted its annual guidance

00:19as shopping remained healthy.

00:22It was a similar story at do-it-yourself retailer Lowe's.

00:25Turning to other business headlines,

00:27online scammers are preying on wealthier, older Americans

00:31at an alarming rate.

00:32The number of Americans aged 60 and above

00:35who have been scammed out of $100,000 or more in one year

00:40tripled from 2020 to 2023.

00:43According to complaints compiled

00:45by the Federal Trade Commission,

00:46that age group had more than $1.9 billion

00:50stolen by fraud in 2023.

00:52That figure, however, likely surges

00:55to an estimated $62 billion once the FTC considers

01:00how many cases go unreported.

01:02Most of the scams are familiar,

01:05but vulnerable elderly members of the population

01:07still fall for them, including romantic propositions,

01:11emails for help from criminals posing

01:13as family members or friends,

01:15sweepstakes and lottery scams,

01:17and fraudsters are even posing as legitimate agents

01:21of the Social Security Administration.

01:23The 60 plus crowd is also particularly falling prey

01:26to investment scams involving cryptocurrencies.

01:29This is the fastest growing area for scammers.

01:33Older Americans were defrauded of $538 million in 2023,

01:38which was a 34% increase from the previous year.

01:42But it's not just the old.

01:44According to the FTC, US consumers lost $10 billion

01:48to all scams last year.

01:51That's a record high.

01:53That'll do it for your daily briefing

01:55from the New York Stock Exchange.

01:56I'm Conway Gittens with The Street.

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