Scams targeting KY seniors are getting ‘more sophisticated.’ How to avoid, report them

Scams targeting senior citizens cost victims more than $3 billion last year, and it’s an issue Kentucky law enforcement officials hope to raise awareness about in June during National Elder Abuse Awareness Month.

In 2022 there were 88,262 people over the age of 60 in the United States who were victimized by online scams mainly targeting seniors, according to a report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Those victims lost a total of about $3.1 billion, coming out to an average of $35,101 per victim.

There were 5,456 victims involved in scams who lost more than $100,000, according to the FBI’s report.

Kentucky residents were among those who fell victim to costly schemes. One federal investigation uncovered that two Kentucky women each lost more than $100,000 in the same scam.

“There are so many more ways that people can get into your personal space than there used to be,” said Carlton Shier IV, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, a federal court jurisdiction that covers the eastern half of the state. “Used to be you had to come knock on somebody’s door.

“Now you can get into bank accounts, get into people’s homes and all sorts of things pretty easily.”

Kentucky had 937 victims over the age of 60 who were involved in these scams, which ranked 26 out of all 50 states, according to the FBI report. Those victims lost nearly $22.5 million, which ranked Kentucky 31 in lost money.

The amount of money lost indicated a 76% increase from 2021. Nationally, the amount of money lost from these scams has gone up in each of the last five years, including an 84% jump from 2021 to 2022, according to the FBI

“This is a Department of Justice priority, and for obvious reasons,” Shier said.

Criminal scams are ‘getting a little more sophisticated’

Internet scams have been a problem for years, but the increased capabilities of technology make it easier for criminals to carry out their schemes, federal officials said. They also like to attack senior citizens for multiple reasons, including their lack of experience with advanced technology and the likelihood they’ll have larger savings accounts.

“They’re getting a little more sophisticated,” Shier said of the people targeting seniors. “The criminals change. Whenever we change, they change.”

Perpetrators have adopted several methods to steal senior citizens’ money, and one of the more popular ones is referred to as a romance scam, according to the FBI. In a romance scam, criminals act as an interested romantic partner on the internet to gain access to someone’s personal and bank information.

Shier said romance scams are dangerous because senior citizens can get wrapped up in the scheme for a long period of time without realizing the danger.

“Romance scams can go on for a long time and the longer you go, the harder it is to get it back,” Shier said.

‘Devastating’ damage done to victims

There were 7,166 confidence/romance scams reported nationally in 2022, costing victims over 60 years old roughly $420 million, according to the FBI.

A woman in Lexington fell victim to a romance scam that cost her $200,000. The woman, who was in her 70s, sent the money to an account she believed was her boyfriend, but it was actually one of the conspirators in a four-man ring based in Nigeria, according to the DOJ.

Another woman in Western Kentucky lost $183,000 in the same scheme, prosecutors said.

Kate Direuf, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said they are still working on recuperating the woman’s money. She also said the woman suffered physical, mental and emotional damage.

“It’s not just financial,” Direuf said. “She did not trust anybody, including herself anymore. It was just devastating.”

During the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office learned that the ring had stolen money from several other victims through other scams. Direuf said she knows the ring had been operating for years, but it could have been longer and it’s unknown how much damage they did.

“Never is it just one victim. It’s always multiple victims,” Direuf said. “Only when somebody has reported the crime that has occurred to them can we find out that they were victimized by the same group of people.”

Another commonly-used scam is known as a grandparent scam, when scammers act as a younger relative in need of immediate financial help.

Direuf said grandparent scams are a product of social media curating. Criminals will stalk victims’ online movements to come up with a targeted attack meant to trick senior citizens.

Common practices in grandparent scams include criminals pretending to be jail officials asking for a gift card or money order for their grandchild’s bond.

“You think to yourself ‘well that’s just not even common sense,’ but in the moment, people aren’t thinking that way, particularly older Americans who might be falling prey for this panic situation,” Shier said.

Scammers also follow patterns and trends with their attacks. Direuf said criminals usually produce a bunch of IRS-related scams during tax season when people are expecting tax refunds

“During COVID there was a proliferation of COVID-related scams,” Direuf said. “Certainly they change with what’s going on.”

Resources for avoiding, reporting scams

There are many resources senior citizens can utilize if they think they’re the victim of a scam, or if they believe they’ve been contacted by a scammer.

Victims are encouraged to report scams to local law enforcement, the DOJ’s Elder Justice website or IC3.gov.

The FBI’s IC3 website is an internet crime complaint center where people can report scams virtually without having to talk to people. It only takes minutes.

Direuf said fewer than one-fourth of individuals involved in fraud crimes report it. She encouraged people involved in fraud schemes to report it immediately because timeliness is important in investigating online scams.

“The best chance is the moment you hang up with them and realize that was a scam, call us,” Direuf said. “The more you delay, the chances of us recovering will take longer.”

The speed at which a scam is reported can be the difference between a victim getting their money back or losing it permanently.

“Obviously if you’re trying to track down missing money, having the federal government on your side is a much better ally,” Shier said. “There’s a lot of more things that we can do to try to recover some of this money.”