If you’ve gotten a call lately that felt slightly off — a grandchild’s voice that didn’t quite sound right, a “bank” asking you to confirm your account number, a stranger claiming you owe the IRS money right now — you’re not imagining things. Scammers have gotten more sophisticated, and they’re targeting people over 60 more aggressively than ever.
Americans aged 60 and older lost more than $5 billion to scams in a single recent year, and the trend is moving in the wrong direction: reports of losses over $100,000 have grown nearly seven-fold since 2020. This isn’t because older adults are careless. It’s because scammers have built an entire industry around exploiting trust, urgency, and unfamiliarity with new technology — and some of their newest tools, like AI voice cloning, are genuinely difficult for anyone to detect in the moment.
This guide walks through the scams you’re most likely to encounter, the warning signs that show up across nearly all of them, and the practical steps that actually reduce your risk — not vague advice like “be careful,” but specific habits and tools you can put in place this week.
The five scams you’re most likely to encounter
1. The grandparent scam
This is consistently the most-reported scam targeting older adults, and it works because it’s built entirely around emotion rather than logic. A caller — often posing as a grandchild — opens with something like “Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?” If you guess a name, the scammer now has a name to use for the rest of the call.
From there, the story escalates: a car accident, an arrest, a hospital bill, bail money needed immediately. The caller will often beg you not to tell anyone else in the family, which is itself the biggest red flag of all. They’ll ask for payment through gift cards, wire transfers, or a payment app — methods that are nearly impossible to reverse once sent.
What makes this scam more dangerous now than even a few years ago is voice cloning. A scammer can take a short clip of someone’s voice from a social media video and use inexpensive AI tools to generate a clip that sounds convincingly like that person. The voice itself is no longer a reliable way to verify who’s calling.
What to do instead: Hang up, then call your grandchild or family member back directly using the number you already have saved for them — never a number the caller gives you. Agree on a family “safe word” in advance that only real family members would know, and ask for it if anyone calls claiming to be in distress.
2. Government impersonation scams
These calls claim to be from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Medicare, or even local law enforcement. The message is almost always built around fear: a warrant has been issued, your Social Security number has been suspended, you owe back taxes and will be arrested if you don’t pay immediately.
Real government agencies do not call demanding immediate payment by gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. They communicate by mail first, and they never threaten immediate arrest over the phone for unpaid debts.
What to do instead: Hang up and contact the agency directly using the number on their official website — not anything the caller provided.
3. Tech support scams
A pop-up appears on your computer warning of a virus, or you receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, Apple, or your internet provider. They ask for remote access to “fix” the problem, then either install malware, steal personal files, or simply charge a large fee for nothing.
What to do instead: Legitimate tech companies do not cold-call you about problems with your computer. Never allow remote access to your computer for someone who contacted you first. If you’re worried about a real issue, contact the company directly through their official site.
4. Romance scams
These build slowly, sometimes over weeks or months, through dating sites or social media. Once trust and affection are established, the request for money begins — usually framed as an emergency, a medical bill, or travel costs to finally meet in person. The relationship is the manipulation.
What to do instead: Be wary of anyone you’ve never met in person who asks for money, no matter how long you’ve been talking or how genuine the relationship feels. Talk to a family member or friend before sending anything.
5. Medical alert and benefits scams
You receive an unsolicited robocall offering a “free” medical alert device or help enrolling in a benefits program. Answering or pressing a number to opt out actually confirms your number is active, leading to more calls. Some versions ask for a credit card number to cover “shipping” on a device that never arrives — or never should have needed payment in the first place.
What to do instead: Don’t engage with unsolicited robocalls at all. Hang up rather than pressing any number, even one offered as an “opt out.”
The pattern behind all of them
Once you’ve seen a few of these scams laid out, a pattern becomes obvious. Recognizing the pattern is more useful than memorizing every individual scam, because new variations appear constantly.
Nearly every scam relies on three ingredients: urgency, secrecy, and an unusual payment method. Scammers want you to act before you have time to think it through, they often ask you not to involve anyone else, and they almost always push toward payment methods that can’t be reversed or traced — gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency.
If a call has any of these three elements, that alone is reason enough to pause, hang up, and verify independently.
Practical steps that actually reduce your risk
A few habits make a meaningful difference, and none of them require deep technical knowledge:
Let unfamiliar numbers go to voicemail. If you don’t recognize the number (not in your contact list) don’t answer. Legitimate callers leave a message. Scammers usually don’t, or they leave something designed to scare you into calling back immediately.
Limit personal details on social media Posting detailed daily routines, family names, or travel plans on social media gives scammers exactly the material they need to make an impersonation convincing. This is also why obituaries that list full family details can become a source of targeting risk.
Set up a family safe word. Agree with close family on a word or phrase that only real family would know, to be used any time someone calls claiming to be in distress.
Never act on the same call that creates the urgency. Hang up and take a few deep breaths. Then call the institution or person back using a number you already trust — not one the caller provided.
Talk to someone before sending money to anyone you haven’t met in person, no matter how convincing the story.
This is also where reducing how much personal information is floating around online actually helps. Scammers build convincing stories using details pulled from data broker sites, old social media posts, and public records — the same kind of information services like Incogni are built to systematically remove. It’s a complement to good habits, not a replacement for them, but cutting down on what’s discoverable about you online does make targeted scams meaningfully harder to pull off convincingly.
If you think you’ve already been targeted
If you suspect you or someone you know has been scammed, the most useful first move is to stop all contact with the suspected scammer immediately — don’t engage further, even to confirm suspicions.
Contact your bank right away if any financial information was shared or any payment was made. Then report the incident:
- The National Elder Fraud Hotline: 833-372-8311
- The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov
- The Federal Trade Commission: reportfraud.ftc.gov
None of these calls are pleasant to make, but reporting helps investigators track patterns and, in some cases, recover funds — and it’s far more common than most people realize. You are not the only one this has happened to, and acting quickly genuinely improves the odds of a good outcome.
If you’re looking for ways to reduce how much of your personal information is available for scammers to find and exploit in the first place, our guide on removing your information from people-search sites is the natural next step.