Updated: March 2025

Older consumers are frequent targets of scammers. The AARP Fraud Watch Network provides resources to help consumers protect themselves from swindlers. It educates seniors about fraudulent schemes and alerts them to scams that are operating in their communities. It also provides a Scam-Tracking Map to help seniors stay abreast of fraudulent schemes that are targeting seniors in their area.

Local AARP Chapters work with the national organization to educate older adults about scams that are prevalent in their communities. In 2021, the Washington Chapter took note of a Federal Trade Commission report  that ranked Washington as having the fifth highest per capita rate of identity theft in the nation. The chapter responded by joining with law enforcement agencies to present an online Tip-Offs to Rip-Offs event to help consumers recognize and avoid scams that prey upon older adults.

More recently, AARP Washington has hosted monthly Fraud Watch Friday events that help older adults recognize “robocall scams, Amazon scams, email phishing, phony texts, romance scams, home repair scams, frauds targeting veterans and more.” According to AARP’s Jason Erskine, those fraudulent schemes “are fast becoming some of most effective and dangerous tactics in the con-artists’ playbook.”

Robocall scams

Erskine explains that robocalls have more than doubled in recent years, reaching nearly 50 billion calls a year. “To make matters worse,” says Erskine, “experts estimate that up to half of these calls may be attempts to defraud consumers.”

Robocalls are simply calls that begin with a recorded message rather than a live person. Many political campaigns depend on robocalls to reach potential voters. Charities use robocalls to solicit donations. Unfortunately, scammers use robocalls to encourage consumers to purchase goods or services that turn out to be useless.

While political campaigns, charities, debt collection agencies, and the consumer’s healthcare providers are allowed to place robocalls without permission, most robocalls are illegal. A business that is not exempt from the law may not place a robocall to a consumer who has not provided written authorization to call the consumer’s number. If a consumer receives a robocall that tries to sell something, the robocall is probably illegal.

The FTC recommends using caller ID to screen calls. If a consumer answers and hears a recorded sales pitch, the FTC encourages the consumer to hang up without pressing any numbers on the telephone keypad. The consumer can then go online to DoNotCall.gov to report the unlawful call. Click “Report Unwanted Calls” to get started.

Imposter Scams

Imposter scams are perpetrated by “con artists who masquerade as someone you know or are likely to trust (e.g., a friend or family member, or a representative from a government agency or well-known business) to convince or coerce you into sending them money or giving them your personal information.” Online romance scams and grandparent scams are among the imposter scams that target older victims.

Online romance scams take advantage of people who are lonely. Criminals create fake profiles on social media sites or dating apps. They strike up relationships and build trust before asking for financial help. They may claim to be stranded overseas and need money for a plane ticket to return home. They may say they need to pay for emergency surgery.

Scammers ask their victims to wire money or load money onto a cash reload card. Once the money has been sent, the profile vanishes, and the victim has no way to recover the loss.

Grandparent scams are operated by thieves who use social media to learn the identities of the victim’s grandchildren. They gain as much information as they can about a grandchild, then contact the victim to ask for help with a financial crisis.

One scammer who posed as a grandchild claimed to have been arrested after a traffic accident and convinced the victim to pay bail money. They ask for money before the victim realizes that an imposter is pretending to be a grandchild.

Scammers may initially contact the grandparent using an email address that is similar to a grandchild’s actual email address. They may also “spoof” the grandchild’s caller ID to convince the grandparent that they the caller is really a grandchild. 

The Postal Service has created public service announcements describing various grandparent scams. Awareness is the best protection against fraud. Grandparents often feel the need to help their grandchildren, but they should always be suspicious when a caller asks for money to be sent by wire transfer or reloadable money cards. Verifying the caller’s story before offering assistance is a key to protecting against grandparent scams.

Amazon and Post Office Scams

Amazon scams begin with a call or text message that purports to notify a consumer about a suspicious charge on his or her Amazon account. A variation of other imposter scams, the call or text message is not from Amazon at all. The scammer who contacts the senior spins a story about Amazon’s detection of fraud committed by using the consumer’s identity. In reality, the scammer seeks information that can be used to gain access to bank accounts, credit cards, or retirement accounts.

Similarly, Post Office scams use texts or emails that purport to have been sent by the US Postal Service. Scammers encourage the recipient to click a tracking link or to open an attachment that infects the consumer’s phone or computer with a virus. Other variations of the scam seek financial information or Social Security numbers that are later used to steal the consumer’s money.

Recognizing scams is the best protection against fraudulent schemes. A consumer who has not initiated communication with Amazon, the Post Office, UPS, or any other organization should never click a link or open an attachment in an unsolicited email or text message. When in doubt, call the organization and ask if the email or text message is legitimate.

(This article has been updated March 2025 since it originally published in July 2021.)