Scams and financial fraud in many forms have been on the rise in recent years, becoming more sophisticated in nature and impacting people of all ages, but particularly targeting older adults, say financial industry experts focused on crime and fraud.

“We’ve seen as an industry just a rise in scams targeting the elderly,” says Erik Vingelen, senior vice president and director of financial crime and risk management for Banner Bank.

Vingelen notes that, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a federal agency that collects and analyzes white-collar crime, U.S. financial institutions reported about $27 billion in elder financial exploitation related to suspicious activity from June 2022 to June 2023.

The Federal Trade Commission, which is tasked with protecting consumers, reported that in 2023 alone, older adults reported losing over $1.9 billion due to fraud. However, because most fraud isn't reported, especially by adults over the age of 60, the FTC estimates the actual figure to be as high as $61.5 billion.

One reason scams are underreported by older adults is that they feel embarrassed, Vingelen says. Another reason is a high degree of financial exploitation of older adults occurs by a known family member or an associate. When theft hits a certain threshold, there is criminal intent and repercussions if charges are pressed, and older adults usually don’t want to make their family go through something like that, even if they have been taken advantage of, he says.

Banner Bank spends millions of dollars annually to help detect and combat financial crime, which includes elder financial exploitation and scams. Vingelen leads a team of roughly 45 people in the 60-person department, he says.

Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank recently has been focused on educating the public on check fraud, citing how despite a 25% decline in check usage, reports of check fraud have nearly doubled since 2021.

Bryan Brodowski, vice president of fraud and anti-money laundering for Washington Trust Bank, says check fraud has really taken off in the last few years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s one of the modalities the banking industry is trying to get ahead of, but it’s a difficult one,” he says.

Typically, it is older generations that still use handwritten checks, he says. Personal checks are being stolen from mailboxes and mail delivery personnel, Brodowski says. Criminals then erase the ink from the notes using chemical solvents and overwrite any amount they want to write in, leaving the person’s signature intact and depositing it into their own accounts. Often, they will sell the information to other criminals on the black market, he says.

As a result, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has partnered with the American Bankers Association to create a new public safety program to combat check fraud. According to the Postal Inspection Service, check fraud has increased nationwide by 385% since the pandemic.

Some tips to take into consideration include:

*Use a permanent gel marker when writing a personal check.

*Avoid leaving any blank spaces on the note.

*Review personal statements online to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.

*Don't include personal information on a check such as a driver’s license or date of birth.

Additionally, big box stores typically process a customer’s check electronically by running it through their cash register, he says. The check should always be returned to the customer, he says.

Mark Fox, senior vice president of payments and operations at Spokane Valley-based Numerica Credit Union, says there are red flags to look out for and best practices to take concerning fraud. Additionally, talking about the most common types of fraud with loved ones can be a helpful tool to ensure they can detect these scams when they occur.

Fox says one scam he sees regularly is the ‘family emergency scam,’ in which scammers will call a family member and claim they need money urgently.

“The technique is to create a false sense of urgency that drives that person to make a decision they might not have made without that pressure involved in it,” Fox says. “If you feel that sense of urgency, that should cause some pushback.”

Some of the other imposter-related scams that impact older adults include criminals posing as Medicare or other insurance representatives and representatives from the IRS, he says.

“They’ll pose as health care representatives and try to access your personal information,” he says. “Everyone, when they get to that age, is going to start talking about Medicare. … It’s a common way where someone will use that life event as a way of inserting themselves into members' communications.”

Older generations are typically kinder, more caring, and more polite than younger generations, he says, whereas younger generations are less trusting. Scammers hone in on this kindness and take advantage of it, he says.

Brodowski notes how in his parents’ generation, it was common to answer the telephone and willingly tell the person on the other line their name and how they can be of help to them.

“That’s not today,” he says. “Even on social media, they tend to place a lot of faith in what they believe is true and real, without really understanding that there are nefarious actors out there that want to manipulate them and steal their money."

Other scams the bankers see in their field of work include romance scams, also known as sweetheart scams, tech-support scams, and as the holidays draw closer, shopping and retail scams.

Sweetheart scams especially target older adults, Fox says. Sweetheart or romance scams typically target lonely or isolated adults via social media platforms like Facebook and gain a person’s trust over an extended period of time before asking them to wire a large sum of money. Scammers typically gain a vulnerable person’s trust and lead them to believe they have a future together and will one day even get married, he says. In these situations, the scammer likely will coach the person being scammed to give bank tellers reasons for making such a large wire transfer in an attempt to avoid setting off red flags.

“There are sweetheart scams where we have been insistent with members, (telling them) please do not send this money,” Fox says. “You’re falling victim to a scam.”

Brodowski says he sees a lot of Facebook romance scams within his work too. When an elderly person comes into a branch, frontline workers are trained to catch red flags such as large overseas wire transfer requests. Washington Trust Bank also has outreach programs for retirement communities, through which they educate the residents on the most common scams targeting their age group.

“We help them understand that Facebook is a great tool to stay in communication with their loved ones, but it’s also a tool that’s used by criminals to get information from you,” he says.

At these workshops, he often will see residents’ faces change expression as they make a connection with the scams they are learning about and the ways in which they’ve unknowingly participated in them in the past, he says.

“It’s like a light goes on, and they say, 'Oh, I’ve done that,' or 'I never thought of that,' or 'I never that that would happen,'” he says.

Tech scams include unsolicited text messages, emails, and phone calls that often alert the end user of a tech problem and prompt them to click on links within messages.

Once the victim clicks on the links, scammers often will install malicious software onto their computer, Fox explains. Once they have done this, they’ll request a certain amount for their services, such as $150, for example. Next, the scammer will falsely claim a much larger sum, such as $15,000, accidentally went into the victim's account. Then the scammers will create a sense of confusion and urgency and demand that the victim "return" the $15,000 from their account to the scammers.

Vingelen, of Banner Bank, says it’s important not to click any links sent in random text messages or emails.

For imposter phone calls, it’s important to hang up and call a registered number with the institution the person claims to be calling from, he says.

Finally, he warns to never give out personal information over the phone.

With the upcoming holidays, Vingelen says he expects an uptick in imposter scams, as people are typically feeling more willing to give money to charities and other causes. On social media platforms, fake advertisements will begin to pop up offering great deals on holiday gifts, he says. Essentially, these are fake storefronts in which the goods purchased never show up, he says.

The quickest and fastest way to not fall prey to fake storefronts on social media is by opening up a separate browser and searching for that sale or business, he says. The artificial intelligence that is built into the search engine typically will let the searcher know how many people are asking about the business and how many complaints have been filed against it.