How Scammers Use Online Data to Target Older Adults

You or a loved one clicks a link, and a page loads in seconds. It feels simple. It is not. Behind that quick page load, your personal information passes through several companies before you ever see the result. Your internet provider sees where you go. A separate lookup service translates the website's name into an address that computers understand. The website itself collects details about your device. Advertising networks and data brokers may collect and resell pieces of your online activity too.

None of this is necessarily sinister. Much of it is about how the modern internet works. But for older adults and the families who love them, digital privacy matters more than ever. Scammers now use the same digital breadcrumbs, along with information pulled from social media and public records, to build convincing, personalized cons. The result is a fraud crisis that is hitting older Americans harder than any other age group, one that makes protecting retirement savings as important online as it is at the bank.

Internet Scams Targeting Seniors: The Scope of the Problem

Fraud losses reported by adults aged 60 and older have climbed sharply in recent years. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), "FTC Issues Annual Report to Congress on Agency's Actions to Protect Older Adults," December 2025, total reported fraud losses among adults 60 and older grew roughly fourfold between 2020 and 2024, rising from about $600 million to about $2.4 billion.

Because so much fraud goes unreported, the FTC estimates the true cost to older adults in 2024 alone may have reached as high as $81.5 billion.

The FTC’s latest report details the agency’s commitment to protecting older Americans from scams that rob them of their hard-earned money. The FTC is doing everything possible to protect older adults and shut down illegal scams." — Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The trend has continued into 2026. AARP reported, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center data, that Americans age 60 and older lost $7.7 billion to fraud in 2025, a roughly 60 percent jump from the year before.

Every day, we must remember that criminals are constantly looking for new ways to steal our hardearned money.” — Amy Nofziger, senior director of fraud victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network.

Losses tend to grow with age. Adults 80 and older reported a median loss exceeding $1,600, according to the FTC's December 2025 report. A separate FTC data spotlight from August 2025 found the number of older-adult reports involving losses over $100,000 increased nearly sevenfold between 2020 and 2024, with combined losses in that category rising eightfold.

The methods have also grown more sophisticated. Investment scams, romance scams, and government or business impersonation now drive the largest dollar losses. Criminals increasingly use artificial intelligence, including cloned voices that mimic a family member in distress, deepfake videos used to promote fraudulent investment pitches, and fake tech-support pop-ups impersonating companies like Microsoft.

The FBI reported $893 million in AI-related fraud losses in 2025, with older adults accounting for $352 million of that total, according to AARP's reporting on the FBI and FTC's 2025 findings.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, warns in guidance last reviewed in January 2026 that scam callers "may threaten you or pressure you to act immediately." The agency advises anyone who suspects a scam to slow down and talk to someone they trust before responding.

Fraud Can Derail Your Future Care Plans

One successful scam can wipe out years of retirement savings. For many older adults, those savings were intended to pay for home care, assisted living, or nursing home care later in life.

Unlike a market downturn, money stolen by a scammer is often impossible to recover. Families who lose significant savings may have fewer options for quality care later on, placing greater financial and emotional pressure on spouses and adult children.

Protecting your digital privacy today is another way of protecting your future independence tomorrow.

Why Older Adults Are Targeted

Criminals do not target older adults at random. Older adults are more likely to hold significant home equity, retirement savings, and good credit, according to Commerce Bank's May 2026 overview of elder fraud prevention, "Understanding and Preventing Scams Against Seniors."

Scammers also count on generational politeness, assuming an older adult will hesitate to hang up on someone who sounds official.

Other factors scammers exploit include:

• Financial assets built up over a lifetime, including home equity and retirement accounts
• A greater likelihood of answering landline calls from unfamiliar numbers
• Social isolation, particularly among older adults who live alone or see family less often
• Less day-to-day familiarity with fast-changing technology and its warning signs
• Cognitive changes that can make it harder to spot inconsistencies in a scammer's story

Recognizing why you or a loved one might be a target is the first step toward building better defenses.

How the Scams Use Your Data

Understanding how your information travels online helps explain why these scams work.

Your internet provider knows where you go: Every site you visit passes through your internet service provider first. Depending on applicable federal and state laws and individual company policies, internet providers may collect information about your online activity for business purposes.

Lookup services see your searches: Before your browser can reach a website, a domain name lookup service translates that address into a location computers can read. Unless you have turned on encrypted lookup settings, often labeled Secure DNS, this request travels as plain, readable text, and whoever operates that lookup service can see the domain names you request. Turning on Secure DNS encrypts your lookups so your provider cannot easily read them. It improves your privacy, though it does not make your online activity completely invisible, since your provider can often still infer which sites you visit through other technical details. Once your device knows you are going to visit a website, it should translate the domain name into an IP address using DNS (Domain Name System). It is like a phone book for the internet.

Websites collect a digital fingerprint: Your browser type, device settings, screen size, and even your list of installed fonts combine to create a unique identifier. Websites use this fingerprint to recognize your device, often without a single cookie.

Cookies and trackers follow you across sites: Ad networks and analytics companies use small tracking files to build a profile of your interests and habits. Companies may share that information with advertising partners or, in some cases, sell consumer data where permitted by law.

Data brokers compile detailed profiles: These companies gather information from multiple sources, including public records and social media, and combine it into consumer profiles that are sold to marketers, while criminals often obtain similar information through public records, data breaches, or other illicit sources.

A scammer does not need to hack you directly. A few pieces of publicly available information, your city, your grandchild's name from a social media post, or a browsing habit picked up by a data broker, can be enough to make a fraudulent call or text sound legitimate.

The FTC's August 2025 data spotlight, "False Alarm, Real Scam: How Scammers Are Stealing Older Adults' Life Savings," found that many of the costliest scams now begin with a fake security alert. A criminal poses as a bank, Microsoft, or even the FTC itself, warning of a supposed hack, then pressures the victim to move money "to safety." In reality, the money goes straight to the scammer, and some victims have emptied their bank accounts or retirement funds during a single call.

Older adults living with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia may be especially vulnerable, since scammers often exploit confusion, trust, and urgency. Families should watch for unusual financial activity while still respecting a loved one's independence and privacy.

Lois Greisman, Associate Director of the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices, offered simple advice in comments reported by the National Council on Aging in "The Top 5 Financial Scams Targeting Older Adults," March 2026: never react quickly and always verify a caller using a number you already know is legitimate.

It’s a heartbreaking fact that scams have wiped out people’s retirement savings. If a business, government agency, or even a grandchild in need contacts you, it’s critical to check who you’re really dealing with. Never panic or react quickly. Contact them at a number you know is real to verify.” — Lois Greisman, Associate Director, Division of Marketing Practices at the FTC.

Practical Steps: Online Privacy and Scam Prevention for Older Adults

You cannot make yourself invisible online, but you can make yourself a much harder target. None of these steps requires advanced technical skills.

• Turn on Secure DNS: Most modern browsers offer this option, sometimes labeled "DNS over HTTPS," in their privacy settings. It keeps your searches harder for your internet provider to read.
• Use a browser that blocks trackers by default: Keep it updated. Safari and Firefox block many third-party trackers automatically.
• Slow down before reviewing cookie consent requests: Decline optional tracking whenever it's offered.
• Verify before you trust an urgent request: A real bank, government agency, or family member will not pressure you to act within minutes. Hang up, look up the organization's number independently, and call back.
• Freeze your credit: You can freeze your credit through each of the three major credit bureaus. It is free and prevents anyone from opening new credit in your name.
• Use a password manager: Instead of reusing the same password across accounts, you can use a password manager. A single reused password is often all it takes for a criminal to unlock several of your accounts at once.
• Talk with your family openly about scam warning signs: Don't be bashful about internet security. Discuss these concerns with loved ones before a crisis happens, not after.
• Add a trusted contact to financial and Social Security accounts: Doing so gives a family member a way to help if something looks wrong.
• Report suspected fraud: File a report with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Reporting helps investigators and protects others.

Protecting your identity and your savings today also protects your ability to plan well for tomorrow. Money lost to fraud is money that cannot go toward future care needs.

Family Caregivers Should Watch for These Warning Signs

Adult children and caregivers are often in the best position to notice a problem before it becomes a crisis. Warning signs that an older loved one may be targeted by, or already caught in, a scam include:

• Sudden secrecy about money or reluctance to discuss banking
• Large or unusual withdrawals from savings or retirement accounts
• New online "friends" or romantic interests the family has never met
• Repeated gift card purchases, especially at pharmacies or convenience stores
• Visible fear, confusion, or anxiety after a phone call
• Unexplained late payments on bills that were previously paid on time

Noticing one of these signs does not mean a scam has happened. It does mean a calm, judgment-free conversation is worth having.

Internet Risks for a Loved One Living in a Long-Term Care Facility

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many nursing homes and assisted living communities have expanded internet access for residents, often through donated tablets and shared Wi-Fi meant to ease isolation and keep families connected. The intention is good. Without safeguards, it can also open a door for scammers to walk through.

Moving into a long-term care facility often means losing the social network built over decades: a spouse, neighbors, a familiar daily routine. Researchers who study romance fraud found that this kind of disruption can deepen loneliness and leave older adults especially open to strangers offering companionship online, published in the Journal of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, "Romance Scams and Older Adults: A Health and Social Care Perspective.

A few risks are specific to the facility setting:

• Shared devices and networks. Tablets and Wi-Fi in common areas are often used by multiple residents, which makes it harder to track who accessed what and easier for a scam to go unnoticed.
• Limited supervision. Staff is focused on care, not on monitoring every resident's browsing or messages. A resident with mild cognitive impairment may click a phishing link or accept a video call from a stranger with no one nearby to catch it.
• Loneliness-driven vulnerability. Residents separated from regular in-person visits may be more receptive to a new online "friend" or romantic interest, a tactic scammers deliberately target.
• Rising cyber harassment. Attorneys who represent nursing home residents report a growing pattern of online harassment and impersonation carried out through social media and messaging apps directed at vulnerable residents.
• Device access by outsiders. A lost or unlocked tablet in a shared space can expose saved passwords, banking apps, or personal photos to anyone who picks it up.

A few steps can meaningfully lower the risk:

• Ask the facility's administrator about its internet safety policies, including whether staff supervise shared devices or restrict access to high-risk sites.
• Set a passcode on your loved one's tablet or phone, and avoid saving banking passwords directly on the device.
• Stay in regular contact yourself. A phone call or video visit from someone your loved one already trusts is one of the strongest defenses against a stranger trying to fill that gap.
• If you suspect financial exploitation or online abuse at a facility, contact the administrator directly and reach out to your state's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, which advocates on behalf of nursing home and assisted living residents, "Elder Scams and Senior Fraud Abuse.

HINT: When searching for a long-term care facility for a loved one, be sure to ask them about internet access and any security they offer. Use the LTC News Caregiver Directory to search from over 80,000 providers, including in-home caregivers, nationwide. If your loved one has a Long-Term Care Insurance policy, be sure to tell the admissions director right away. LTC News partners with Amada Senior Care to provide free claim support with no cost or obligation — File a Long-Term Care Insurance Claim.

A Conversation Worth Having

Have you talked with your parents or your adult children about how to spot a scam before it happens? Financial security is an essential part of aging with dignity. Just as families prepare for future health needs, they should also prepare for the digital threats that can undermine years of careful retirement planning. A few honest conversations today, held calmly and without judgment, may prevent devastating losses tomorrow.