Elder financial fraud has surged at an alarming pace, growing more than fourfold since 2020. Older adults are now among the most relentlessly targeted groups, facing schemes that range from familiar impostor scams to highly sophisticated attacks driven by breached data, AI-generated deepfakes, and coordinated criminal networks.

As this threat accelerates, community banks and credit unions are being pushed to the front lines. Customers now expect their institutions to detect and halt suspicious activity before it causes harm, even as financial responsibility increasingly falls on the very institutions working to protect them.

What’s Driving the Rise in Elder Fraud?

With 1 in 6 Americans now over the age of 65, scammers have a growing pool of high-value, financially vulnerable targets who have accumulated savings or retirement income. At the same time, advances in AI have transformed the fraud landscape. Voice cloning, deepfakes, and AI-generated scripts make it easier than ever for criminals to convincingly impersonate loved ones, government agencies, or even a customer’s own financial institution—at a speed and scale previously impossible.

The impact is clear. In 2024, Americans age 60+ reported nearly 150,000 fraud complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), totaling about $4.9B in losses. Both complaints and losses rose sharply year over year, signaling that the problem is accelerating, not stabilizing. Even more concerning, the average loss per older-adult victim is nearly $34,000, with large-loss cases continuing to climb.

And these figures still understate the true scope of the problem. Many victims never report what happened due to shame, fear, or uncertainty about where to turn. A recent FinCEN trend review found that more than $27 billion in suspicious activity was linked to elder exploitation in just one year of BSA filings, offering a glimpse into the massive harm that goes unreported.

The Most Common Scams Targeting Older Adults

As fraud tactics evolve, older adults remain prime targets for schemes that exploit trust, vulnerability, and emotion. While methods vary, many of the scams that cause the greatest financial and emotional harm follow recognizable patterns:

• Romance scams: Scammers build emotional connections with older adults through social media or dating sites. Over time, they gain trust by offering companionship, attention, and support, often targeting individuals who live alone or have limited social interactions. Once the relationship is established, criminals introduce fabricated emergencies, fake investment opportunities, and other urgent financial needs, pressuring the victim into sending money.
• Grandparent scams: Using stolen personal data or AI-generated voice spoofing, scammers impersonate a distressed relative facing a crisis, such as arrest, medical bills, or travel emergencies. Victims are pressured to send money immediately and keep the situation secret from other family members or institution staff.
• Tech support scams: Fraudsters pose as reputable technology companies and claim that a victim’s device has been compromised. After convincing the individual to grant remote access, scammers harvest sensitive information and manipulate account activity to create the illusion of they’ve received accidental refunds that must be returned.
• Government impersonation scams: Bad actors pose claim to represent government agencies like the IRS, Social Security Administration, or Postal Service, threatening arrest, loss of benefits, or legal action unless the victim pays immediately. These scams rely on creating intense fear, pressuring victims into quick compliance.
• Sweepstakes/charity/lottery scams: Victims are told they’ve won a prize and must pay a “processing fee” to claim their winnings. Others are persuaded to donate to fake charities, often following natural disasters or during the holiday season. These schemes frequently unfold through repeated withdrawals or mailed checks, and because they present themselves as good news rather than a threat, victims may overlook warning signs until substantial funds have already been lost.
• Family/caregiver scams: In some cases, perpetrators are relatives, neighbors, or hired caregivers who gradually assume control of accounts, typically isolating and manipulating the victim to access funds. This often surfaces as unusual withdrawals, new joint accounts, or altered power-of-attorney documents.

Many of these scams rely on the same core levers: urgency, secrecy, and emotional manipulation, often coaching victims to avoid family members and financial institution staff. Understanding these common patterns equips community banks and credit unions to better recognize the warning signs and support customers before irreversible harm is done.

How Elder Fraud Impacts Your institution

These schemes don’t just endanger older adults, but also place substantial responsibility on the financial institutions that serve them. As scams become more sophisticated and emotionally manipulative, community financial institutions are increasingly pulled into the center of these incidents. Even when transfers are technically “authorized,” customers and families often view the institution as the last line of defense, expecting intervention before money is lost.

This shifting expectation creates mounting pressure across several fronts:

• Operational strain: Fraud teams face a steady surge of disputes and escalations that require intensive manual review. This work slows day-to-day operations and pulls attention away from broader risk priorities.
• Reputational risk: A single public incident, especially one involving a longtime or vulnerable customer, can quickly undermine community trust. Once that confidence is shaken, it can take years to rebuild.
• Losses and recovery costs: Major fraud events can reach six figures, and recovery efforts rarely succeed once funds move through mule networks. Financial institutions are often left to absorb the financial hit, with little chance of reimbursement.

Ultimately, these pressures make it clear that institutions must have a thoughtful, proactive plan in place to protect their older adult accountholders.

Essential Elements of Effective Elder Fraud Protection

Protecting older adults from financial exploitation requires more than a single alert or manual controls. Financial institutions need layered defenses that empower customers while minimizing losses. Institutions leading in this field focus on four core practices:

• Spot behavior changes early: Go beyond traditional transaction monitoring. Train frontline teams and systems to identify unusual withdrawal patterns, abrupt account-access changes, or signs of hesitation and coercion. Early recognition enables faster intervention.
• Communicate in clear, senior-friendly ways: When warnings or holds are necessary, messages should be understandable and supportive. Use plain language, avoid blame, and offer simple next steps. Customers should walk away feeling protected, not embarrassed.
• Leverage trusted contacts: With a customer’s permission, involve caregivers or designated contacts who can help validate suspicious situations before funds leave the account. This collaboration often stops fraud in its earliest stages.
• Build confidence through education: Provide short, repeatable lessons that help seniors spot common scam tactics like impersonation attempts, urgent demands, and unusual payment requests. Regular, bite-sized education builds stronger instincts and prepares them to respond confidently when real fraud attempts occur.

This is where prevention truly happens: before the wire, before the cash withdrawal, before the irreversible P2P transfer.

Strengthen Elder Fraud Protection with Carefull™

Elder financial abuse is accelerating, and fraudsters are evolving faster than traditional controls can manage. As community banks and credit unions shoulder more of the burden, it’s clear that institutions need support that extends beyond alerts and manual reviews.

Carefull was built specifically for this challenge, giving institutions a fully branded financial safety program designed for older adults and the caregivers who support them. It helps identify scam patterns earlier, guide customers with simple next steps, and activate trusted contacts at critical moments, reducing losses while strengthening customer confidence.

Discover how Carefull can protect your institution from elder fraud losses while reinforcing the reputation your customer’s trust.