As monetary losses from elder fraud exploded nationwide last year, senior citizens in Georgia lost more money on average than those in other states, according to the FBI.
While the total number of elder fraud cases was down from the year prior, national losses climbed more than 80% to more than $3 billion, the FBI said in its annual elder fraud report. The FBI defines elder fraud cases as those targeting victims over the age of 60.
More than 2,000 people in Georgia were victims of elder fraud in 2022, which ranked 14th in the nation. However, Georgia citizens lost nearly $79 million, the ninth-highest state total.
Two types of fraud are driving the increase in losses: investment schemes and tech support schemes, according to FBI Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Seres. Investment schemes caused by far the highest amount of monetary losses. Tech support schemes typically resulted in less money lost by each victim, but were easily the most common type of elder fraud.
Investment schemes are similar to romance schemes in that they involve gaining the victim’s trust over a long period of time until the fraudster is able to extract a large amount of money, Seres said. The process is indelicately called “pig butchering.”
“It’s a slang term for ‘fattening up the hog for slaughter,’ that type of thing,” Seres said.
Criminals seek out victims on social media or in other online forums, then build a relationship with their target over the course of weeks or months. Eventually, they will propose an investment idea. Seres explained that the scheme can continue even after victims make sizeable payments to the criminal.
“Maybe you make an initial payment of $100,000,” he said. “They’ll keep showing you screenshots of your investment. Now it’s up to $200,000, now it’s up to $250,000. Oh, maybe you should invest another million.”
“That’s why the losses are so significant,” Seres added.
The FBI reported a little more than 4,600 elder victims of investment schemes last year, but they collectively lost nearly a billion dollars.
In contrast, tech support schemes successfully targeted nearly 18,000 elder fraud victims and resulted in nearly $590 million in losses. Those cases often involve computer malware that causes a system popup that warns the user that the computer is infected with a virus. The popup often provides a website or phone number for tech support.
“Those links are all sent by a criminal with the intent to steal your personal information to use later or ... get you to send money to fix your computer,” Seres said.
As new technologies like cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence become more mainstream, criminals have used them to commit fraud with more efficiency. Crypto has provided a way for fraudsters to transfer large amounts of money away from victims quickly and without a trace.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT allow criminals, who almost always prefer text-based communications, to write in a more conversational and culturally appropriate tone. In some cases, AI has been employed to mimic the voice of a person known to the victim, Seres said. These tools help criminals create an online persona that appears familiar to their victims, even though many of them operate from fraud hotspots in Western Africa, India or elsewhere in Asia.
“At the end of the day, this is their only job. These people are professional criminals,” Seres said. “It’s not people in a cyber cafe in Nigeria sending a quick email about a fake lottery. These guys are finding you on social media and other public information that people put out, and they’re trying to exploit that.”
The FBI’s 2022 Elder Fraud Report and tips to avoid falling victim of these crimes are available through the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
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