Older adults losing six figures to impersonation scams rose eightfold
The FTC reported in August 2025 that combined losses from older adults who lost more than $100,000 to impersonation scams rose eightfold, from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024. The payment instructions in those cases are physical: cash into Bitcoin ATMs, and stacks of cash or gold handed to couriers.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Ongoing
- Reported loss
- $445.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Bitcoin ATM and crypto kiosk scams, Government impersonation, Bank impersonation and the safe account, Fake tech support
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC published the analysis on 5 August 2025.
- Reports from older adults who said they lost $10,000 or more to impersonation scams increased more than fourfold since 2020.
- Combined losses reported by older adults who lost more than $100,000 increased eightfold, from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024.
- The three opening pretexts recorded are a false claim of unauthorised account activity, a government official warning of identity theft, and a fake security alert supposedly from a technology company.
- Victims are directed to transfer money out of their accounts, deposit cash into Bitcoin ATMs, and hand stacks of cash or gold to couriers.
- The FTC's advice: never transfer or send money to anyone, no matter who they say they are, in response to an unexpected call or message.
Why this case matters
$55 million to $445 million in four years, from a single slice of the data: older adults who lost more than $100,000 each.
Not the number of victims — the number of victims losing six figures. That is a life’s savings, eightfold more of it, in four years.
The shape of the change
Reports of losses over $10,000 from older adults rose more than fourfold since 2020. Losses over $100,000 rose eightfold.
The bigger the loss band, the faster the growth. Something changed that makes these schemes able to take everything rather than something, and the payment instructions are where to look for it.
Cash, machines and couriers
The FTC lists what victims are told to do: move money out of their accounts, deposit cash into Bitcoin ATMs, and hand stacks of cash or gold to couriers.
That is a striking list for 2024. Every one of those is physical or irreversible, and two of them involve a person leaving their house with money.
The reason is straightforward. Banks got better at stopping transfers. A wire to an unknown beneficiary now triggers questions, holds and warning screens, and a member of staff may ask what the payment is for. Cash withdrawn and fed into a machine in a petrol station passes none of those checks — and gold handed to a courier passes fewer still.
The escalation in loss size and the shift to physical payment are the same fact seen twice: the schemes moved to the rails where nobody intervenes.
The three openings
All impersonation, all alarms:
- Unauthorised activity on your account.
- A government official warning that your identity has been stolen.
- A security alert that looks like it came from a technology company.
Each puts the target into a state where being told to act quickly feels appropriate — and each is covered elsewhere on this site, under bank impersonation, government impersonation and tech support. What this data adds is where the money goes once one of them works.
The rule
Never transfer or send money to anyone, no matter who they say they are, in response to an unexpected call or message.
Blunt, and correct. The distinguishing feature is not who the caller claims to be — it is that you did not initiate the contact.
Sources
- FTC Data Show a More Than Four-Fold Increase in Reports of Impersonation Scammers Stealing Tens and Even Hundreds of Thousands from Older Adults. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The August 2025 analysis, the fourfold rise in $10,000-plus reports, the eightfold rise from $55m to $445m, the three pretexts, the Bitcoin ATM and cash-and-gold courier instructions, and the advice.
- False alarm, real scam: how scammers are stealing older adults' life savings. US Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Data Spotlight. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The underlying data spotlight for the same finding.
- Bitcoin ATMs: A payment portal for scammers. US Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Data Spotlight. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The kiosk loss figures and older-adult concentration these cases sit inside.