San Diego Seniors Community Foundation (SDSCF) is partnering with The Country Friends to host an Elder Fraud Prevention seminar at the Encinitas Senior Center on Tuesday, July 30 at 10:00 a.m. Supported by the Wells Fargo Foundation in collaboration with the FBI San Diego Citizens Academy, this event aims to educate seniors and their families about preventing fraud and scams.
In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 Billion. In the same year, total losses reported to the IC3 by those over the age of 60 topped $3.4 billion, an 11 percent increase in reported losses from 2022. There was also a 14 percent increase in complaints filed with IC3 by elderly victims.
Nationwide, tech support fraud was the number one crime type impacting seniors (over age 60), with nearly 18,000 complaints, and almost $600 million in reported losses, while investment scams continued to be the costliest to the elderly with losses exceeding $1.2 billion.
“Scammers are using sophisticated methods to target, not just older individuals, but everyone,” said Kris Kelly, Director of Partnerships, SDSCF. “Deceitful schemes can exploit finances through scams or financial manipulation.
We encourage seniors and their families to attend this event to learn how to protect themselves and share this vital information.”
“As the Bank of Doing, we believe helping individuals avoid or recover from elder fraud is integral to helping communities succeed financially,” said a Laura MacKinnon Chapman, Philanthropy and Community Impact Specialist with Wells Fargo. “It’s important to raise awareness around how seniors and their families can protect their financial health and wealth.”
Common frauds regularly affecting individuals over age 60 include:
- Confidence/Romance Scam. Criminals pose as interested romantic partners through dating websites to capitalize on their elderly victims’ desire to find companions.
- Tech Support Scam. Criminals pose as tech support representatives and offer to fix nonexistent computer issues—gaining remote access to victims’ devices and, thus, their sensitive information.
- Cryptocurrency Scam. Scammers convince targeted individuals to withdraw large sums of cash and deposit into cryptocurrency ATMs or kiosks at locations provided by the scammers. Once cash is deposited and converted into cryptocurrency, the scammer transfers it to other cryptocurrency accounts.
- Investment Scam. Investment fraud involves complex financial crimes often characterized as low-risk investments with guaranteed returns. They comprise of advanced fee frauds, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, market manipulation fraud, real estate investing, and trust-based investing such as cryptocurrency investment scams.
The FBI National Citizens Academy Alumni Association (FBICAAA) recently awarded the Excellence in Community Partnerships, a national recognition, to the FBI San Diego Citizens Academy Alumni Association for their work with the SDSCF for educating more than 500 San Diego seniors on fraud prevention.
The Excellence in Community Partnerships Award honors FBICAAA Chapters that exemplify outstanding commitment and innovation in forging collaborations with local, state, and national organizations in support of their community outreach goals. The recognition is dedicated to chapters that strategically and effectively partner with external entities, contributing significantly to the advancement of the FBI Field Office’s mission and priorities.
The July 30 event is free and will feature a presentation by an active FBI Intelligence Analyst. To register for the event, visit https://bit.ly/FraudPreventionSeminar.
For more information, visit sdscf.org or fbisdcaaa.org/elderfraud.
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