FTC Report to Congress Details Fraud Reports from Older Consumers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently sent a report to Congress, Protecting Older Consumers 2018-2019: A Report of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC "conducts research and analysis, publishes information about patterns and trends, and engages in coordinated efforts to protect older adults from financial loss and assist them with other consumer issues such as identity theft protection." The agency identifies "patterns and trends" and "works closely with stakeholders to learn about the top issues concerning older adults. According to the report, nearly 3.1 million consumers reported some form of financial scheme, 1.5 million reporting fraud, 444,383 reporting identity theft, and all others totaling 1.2 million. Consumers reported losing nearly $1.6 billion to fraud. About 45 percent of fraud reports filed in 2018 included consumer age information. Consumers who said they were 60 and older (older adults) filed 256,404 fraud reports with reported losses of nearly $400 million. 

Key findings from the 2018 data include:

• In 2018, older adults were still the least likely of any age group to report losing money to fraud, but their individual median dollar losses remained higher than for younger adults;
• Compared to 2017 numbers, reported median individual losses among consumers 60 and over increased, and the increase was particularly large for people 80 and over;
• Older adults were much more likely than younger consumers to report losing money on tech support scams, prize, sweepstakes and lottery scams, and family/friend impersonation;
• Phone scams were the most lucrative against older consumers in terms of aggregate losses, and online scams were a distant second;
• Gift cards became the payment of choice for scammers, but wire transfers persisted in the top spot for total dollars paid. 

There was good news in the report; the overwhelming majority of  fraud reports filed in 2018 by consumers 60 or older did not indicate any monetary loss.  Older adults filed "no-loss" reports about fraud they had spotted or encountered at nearly twice the rate of consumers ages 20-59.  Moreover, it remained true through 2018 that older adults were less likely than younger consumers (ages 20-59) to report losing any money to fraud.  This suggests that older adults may be more likely to avoid losing money when exposed to fraud, more inclined to report fraud when no loss has occurred, or a combination of these or other factors. The FTC fraud survey  found that the rates of victimization for the various categories of frauds included in the survey were generally lower for those 65 and older than for younger consumers. 

On the more bleak side of the data, older consumers who did report losing money, reported much higher individual losses. In addition, the median individual losses reported by older consumers rose significantly in 2018. In 2018, median reported losses were fairly stable for younger adults as compared to 2017, but increased for older adults. Consumers ages 80 and older reported the largest median losses of $1,700 as well as the largest increase as compared to 2017. The median dollar loss for this 80 and over age group was more than four times the median loss amount reported by consumers in their 20s and 30s and more than two to three times that of other age groups. This striking growth for people 80 and older was driven in large part by increases in reported median dollar losses on prize, sweepstakes and lottery scams, and family and friend imposter scams (often called the “grandparent scam”). For people ages 60-79, a surge in reports of losses to imposters posing as the Social Security Administration during the second half of 2018 contributed to the upward trend in median losses.

As the nation’s primary consumer protection agency, the FTC has a broad mandate to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices in the marketplace.  It does this by, among other things, filing law enforcement actions to stop unlawful practices and, when possible, returning money to consumers. The FTC also protects the public through education and outreach on consumer protection issues. Through research and collaboration with federal, state, international, and private sector partners, the FTC strategically targets its efforts to achieve the maximum benefits for consumers, including older adults. Protecting older consumers in the marketplace is one of the FTC’s top priorities. Unfortunately, in numerous FTC cases, older  adults have been targeted or disproportionately affected by fraud. For example, the FTC has brought numerous enforcement actions in federal court to stop deceptive technical support schemes that affected older consumers. As the population of older adults grows,the FTC’s aggressive efforts to bring law enforcement action against scams that affect them, as well as provide useful consumer advice, become increasingly important.

The FTC submits an annual report to the Committees on the Judiciary of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives to fulfill the reporting requirements of Section 101(c)(2) of the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act of 2017. The law requires the FTC Chairman to file a report listing the FTC’s enforcement actions “over the preceding year in each case in which not less than one victim was an elder or that involved a financial scheme or scam that was either targeted directly toward or largely affected elders.” Given the large number of consumers affected in FTC actions, this list includes every administrative and federal district court action filed in the one-year period. Appendix A to this report lists all of the FTC’s enforcement actions over the preceding year. In addition to the list, the FTC files this report to provide detail on the agency’s efforts to protect older consumers, including its research and strategic initiatives, its law enforcement actions that noted an impact on older adults, and its targeted consumer education and outreach.