As a cybersecurity educator, I’m used to being the unofficial IT support for my friends, family and neighbors. Forgotten passwords, suspicious emails, how-to’s – I’m the person they turn to because I “know about computers.”
So when I received a text from one of my neighbors, a woman in her early 70s, saying she had been scammed, I did not immediately think the worst. I texted her with the usual advice: Change your passwords, contact your financial institution, file an identity theft report, and perhaps make a police report if the situation was serious.
Then she replied: “I think you better come down here and let’s talk.”
When I arrived at her house, I immediately knew this was different. She greeted me with a mixture of embarrassment, shame, fear and confusion. Over the next hour, she frantically told me how a series of events over the course of three days had resulted in scammers stealing approximately US$100,000 from her.
Her ordeal began when she discovered that she was locked out of her bank account. Naturally, she called her bank for help. During the process, she believed she was transferred to technical support, but somewhere along the way she ended up communicating with scammers.
Then another crisis appeared. Her computer displayed an alarming warning claiming that the computer was being hacked and that she needed to contact Microsoft immediately. The scammers effectively isolated her and persuaded her not to communicate with anyone who might have interrupted the scheme. They convinced her that her money was in danger and instructed her to move it into cryptocurrency, supposedly to protect her assets from being stolen or seized.
Unfortunately, that money was now long gone.
The scope of the problem
Before this incident, I understood that fraud targeting older adults was a serious problem. But I didn’t fully appreciate its scale until I saw its impact sitting across from me.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 1 million complaints in 2025, representing nearly $21 billion in reported losses.
Across all age groups in 2025, investment fraud accounted for approximately $8.6 billion in reported losses, while tech/customer-support scams accounted for another $2.1 billion. Romance and confidence scams, where the scammer psychologically manipulates the victim, added up to approximately $929 million in reported losses.
But the numbers for older Americans are particularly troubling.
People age 60 and older submitted about 20% of all complaints to the center and accounted for more than 37% of financial losses, totaling about $7.75 billion. That’s more complaints and more reported losses than any other age group. The average reported loss among complainants 60 and older was approximately $38,500, and nearly 12,500 people in that age group reported losing more than $100,000.
Reasons for the higher losses for the elderly range from access to a nest egg and a lack of comfort with newer technology to loneliness and declining cognitive abilities.
A cloud over the Sunshine State
This issue has particular significance in Florida. About 23% of Floridians – 5.3 million people – are 65 or older.
In 2025, Florida generated 71,843 complaints to the Internet Crime Complaint Center for a total of nearly $1.6 billion in reported losses. This is the third-highest number of complaints and total losses in the country, which is unsurprising, given that Florida is the third-largest state. But Florida came in second in both total cybercrime complaints and total financial losses for residents over 60, with more than 17,000 complaints and nearly $710 million lost.
So protecting older Floridians from fraud is more than simply a cybersecurity awareness issue. It is a significant financial and community issue. Operation Senior Shield is a program through the Florida Department of Elder Affairs that provides free alerts via email, text or phone about scams targeting older adults and their caregivers.
Scams on the rise
In 2026, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, an international organization that brings together governments and private institutions to understand and stop online scams, surveyed 3,110 U.S. adults and found that 82% had encountered a scam during the previous year.
Despite 86% saying they were confident they could recognize scams, 43% still interacted with a scammer, and 9% experienced financial or data loss as a result.
Perhaps most concerning, only 40% of the victims who said they lost money reported the incident to authorities. Among those who didn’t lose money in their interaction with the scammer, only 4% reported it to authorities. In addition, 59% reported an impact on their mental well-being, and more than half experienced repeat scams.
That reporting gap matters: A report that appears insignificant by itself may contain the phone number, email address, cryptocurrency wallet, domain name, bank account, IP address or other piece of infrastructure that investigators can use to connect multiple victims to the same criminal network. It may help identify the scammer.
What to do if you or a loved one has been scammed online
After listening to my neighbor’s story, she and I began to document what had happened and contacted our local U.S. Secret Service office.
The response was swift.
Within about a week, one of the scammers involved was arrested. It turns out her scammer was already on law enforcement’s radar in connection with other crimes. The case ultimately resulted in a restitution order, meaning my neighbor will get her money back eventually. This is the best possible outcome, but this incident permanently changed the way I think about cybercrime.
If you or a loved one has been scammed, here’s what you can do:
1. Contact your financial institution immediately.
2. Document everything. Save emails, text messages, phone numbers, screenshots, receipts, transaction records, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, websites, usernames and correspondence.
3. Report the crime to the appropriate authorities. Start with the local police and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov. If your driver’s license or identity was impacted, visit identitytheft.gov.
Depending on the nature of the scheme, it may also be appropriate to report to state regulators, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission or other agencies. For Florida residents, the Florida attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division provides consumer fraud reporting resources, including programs focused specifically on older Floridians.
4. Secure all of your accounts. That includes social media, banks and email accounts. Reset passwords wherever possible, and enable multifactor authentication.
5. Watch for the second scam. Scammers may contact previous victims claiming to be investigators, attorneys, cybersecurity companies, cryptocurrency experts, or “recovery specialists” who can supposedly retrieve stolen cryptocurrency or money for a fee.
6. Do not overlook the emotional impact. Being scammed can be traumatic. Seeking care from a mental health professional may help the victim process their feelings and recover from this experience.
