Seniors lost $4.8 billion to scammers in 2024: FBI

(NEW YORK) — Seniors lost $4.8 billion in 2024 to scammers, according to a report released Wednesday by the FBI.

In total, people in the United States lost $16.6 billion in 2024, representing a 33% increase in losses from 2023 to 2024.

“Every number in this report represents a real person, a victim whose trust was betrayed, whose financial security was compromised and whose voice deserves to be heard,” Christopher Delzotto, the section chief of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, told reporters during a conference call.

Investment scams are when someone is tricked into investing in stocks, bonds, real estate or other assets with a return that is almost too good to be true, and losses among the public to scammers have increased over the past five years, according to statistics released in the report, with people losing $50.5 billion in total over that time frame.

The FBI receives an average of 836,000 reports of cyber fraud per year, according to the report. On average, people lost at least $20,000.

The FBI received 47,919 investment fraud complaints, and people lost almost $6 billion in 2024.

Those scammed lost $2 billion in business email compromise scams, which occurs when scammers pretend to be a supervisor or co-worker and ask for money or gift cards. Technology support scams, which happens when someone pretends a computer or other tech item has an issue, also netted more than $1 billion.

Toll scams, in which people get a text message that they have a toll bill outstanding, led to over 59,000 complaints, and people lost almost $130,000 in these scams. Emergency scams, which happen when someone calls a grandparent and pretends to be in distress, resulted in $2.7 million in losses.

People ages 50-59 saw the second-most losses behind seniors, at $2.5 billion.

California, Texas and Florida were the states with the most losses, according to the report.

FBI officials said on the call that the number may be underreported given that some people are embarrassed to admit they have been victims of scams.