SerpApi.Org
Every week, older adults in San Diego County answer calls, texts and emails that appear to come from a grandchild, bank, government agency or technology company. Too often, the voice on the other end belongs to a criminal using fear, urgency, isolation and increasingly artificial intelligence to steal what took a lifetime to build.
The national scale is staggering, and San Diego is part of the same crisis. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, adults 60 and older filed over 200,000 internet crime complaints in 2025 and reported $7.75 billion in losses — a 59% increase in losses over 2024. The average reported loss was more than $38,000, and at least 12,444 older victims reported losing $100,000 or more.
San Diego County is not immune. The District Attorney’s office reports that seniors lost $144 million to fraud locally in 2025, a figure likely understated by tens of millions because many victims never report what happened out of embarrassment or fear.
Those losses explain why prevention cannot wait for another reporting cycle. Congress has a practical tool in front of it: H.R. 2478, the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2025, which passed the House by a 414-2 vote and would give financial institutions clear authority to temporarily pause suspicious withdrawals when exploitation is suspected.
The Senate must not let this bill stall again — like it did in 2023 — because delay is exactly what scammers exploit. Contact Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff to press for passage of H.R. 2478 now, so families, financial institutions and law enforcement have one more chance to stop fraud before a lifetime of savings disappears.
The need for urgency is reinforced by how quickly the threat is evolving. Stolen Trust: A Special Study on America’s Elder Fraud Landscape, released by Human Cybersecurity Knowledge for Seniors and written by founder and director Yuksel Aydin, identifies major scam categories targeting older adults, including investment fraud, tech support scams, romance and confidence schemes, and government impersonation. It also highlights the rise of AI-enabled deception, a growing challenge because victims and investigators may not always recognize when artificial intelligence has been used.
For individuals and families, prevention starts with one rule: verify before you trust. Treat unexpected calls, texts, emails or visits as potential scams, especially when they create urgency or ask for money, passwords or secrecy. If someone claims to be from your bank, credit card company, government agency or family, stop and contact that person or institution directly using a number you find yourself. Do not rely on phone numbers, links or email addresses provided by the person who contacted you.
If you are scammed, act quickly. Report the crime to the FBI through IC3.gov, notify local law enforcement, and contact your bank or credit card company immediately. Speed matters because financial institutions and investigators may have more options before the money moves again.
Families can help before a crisis happens. Talk with older relatives about suspicious calls, texts and emails. Choose a simple family safe word or phrase that only trusted relatives know and use it to confirm whether an urgent request is real. Encourage everyone to pause and verify before sending money, buying gift cards, transferring cryptocurrency, sharing passwords or allowing remote access to a computer. The goal is not to limit independence; it is to protect it.
Law enforcement and financial institutions need continued resources, but they cannot solve this alone. Elder fraud thrives on silence, confusion and delay. If scammers are using technology to scale manipulation, San Diego must use trusted relationships to scale prevention.
The lesson of Stolen Trust is clear that the old response is no longer enough. The work of the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation points to an equally important lesson that awareness can be built before the next phone call, text or email reaches a potential victim. San Diego can treat elder fraud as a private embarrassment after money is gone, or as a public challenge we confront together — and the Senate can help by passing H.R. 2478 before more families lose what took a lifetime to save.
Paul Downey is the chief advocacy officer for the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation. He has over 30 years’ experience as a national leader on aging policy and program services, including serving as the chair of the California Commission on Aging.
