The Federal Trade Commission released a new report Monday on fraud targeting older Americans, defined as people 60 and older. And things just keep getting worse.

The report, which is mandated by Congress under the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act of 2017, found that the amount of money seniors reported to the FTC as being lost to fraud jumped from $600 million in 2020 to $3 billion in 2025. But the real number is likely several times that, since most fraud goes unreported. The FTC estimates that the overall cost in 2025 could be anywhere from $13.5 billion to $119.5 billion, depending on which methodology is used. That’s an increase of as much as 47% over 2024.

“These figures reflect a considerable degree of uncertainty because the scale of underreporting, particularly when losses are high, is not well understood,” the FTC says in its new report.

Older adults reported the highest individual losses to the FTC, compared to younger Americans, which is to be expected given the way that wealth is distributed in the U.S.—Baby Boomers, those between 62-80 years old, hold about 51% of the nation’s wealth, while Gen-X holds 26%, and Millennials hold 11%.

Those over 80 years old, known as the Silent Generation, hold about 11% of the country’s wealth but reported the largest individual losses. The median reported loss among those 80 and older was $2,000.

“From 2020 to 2025, combined losses by older adults who reported losing over $100,000 increased nearly sevenfold. While these reports were relatively rare at 6% of older adults’ loss reports in 2025, they accounted for 70% of their aggregate reported losses,” according to the report.

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