Loneliness Is the Vulnerability: How Isolation Puts Seniors at Risk of Scams

In an age where we are connected to everyone and everything all at once, loneliness has become an epidemic. That is not a figure of speech. In 2023 the U.S. Surgeon General issued a formal advisory titled "Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation," reporting that roughly half of American adults experience loneliness.

We don’t converse with others the way our parents or grandparents did. We use brief phone calls, text, email, emojis. "Just stopping by" went from being a neighborly event a few short decades ago to being considered unusual or even rude by today’s standards. It’s something that evolved slowly, in a way that most of us barely noticed. Our seniors have noticed, and they’re paying the price.

We think of getting scammed as a failure of intelligence. It’s not — it’s a failure of connection. Smart, isolated people get taken every day. Scam victims include law enforcement, pilots, doctors, celebrities, anyone. We all have a button that a scammer can push. Not all scams are obvious. Some involve grooming a victim over a long period of time.

Seniors are our forgotten generation. Think about how the rest of us grew up. We believed that most of the people in charge of our lives were there to take care of us and our needs. As children, they fed us, housed us, and handled the everyday situations that we didn’t have to deal with. During our adult lives, how often have we said things like, "Life was so much simpler when I was younger" or "I want to go back to the days when my only responsibility was having cookies and a nap"? While we were growing up longing for sugar and nap time, our parents and our grandparents got older. While we stopped needing them to handle responsibilities for us, we didn’t notice that along the way they started needing us.

We’ve often found ourselves forgetting to call old friends because "life got in the way." It happens. Along the way, our parents and grandparents lost friends and family. While the volume of people we come into contact grew, their circle of loved ones became smaller. We noticed, but sometimes only peripherally. For seniors, that loss can be devastating as well as a painful reminder of our own mortality. The gaping hole left behind when we lose a loved one is agonizing. We sometimes feel we’ll never quite be a complete person — that a part of us died with our loved one’s passing. Some people will isolate themselves, wrapped in grief. Others reach out for a connection only to be told that life is getting in the way, that their children and grandchildren are too busy for them.

In walks the scammer.

The loneliness that closes in on our seniors allows scammers to get close to them. Scammers take advantage of that loneliness. They fill the holes left behind when loved ones pass away. And they’re good at it. They’re trained to seem empathetic and caring. It’s their job. It’s how they make money. The scams they use are designed to trick people.

This isn’t only my observation. The FBI, in its own guidance on older-adult victims, notes that older victims may be driven by loneliness to communicate with strangers.

Scammers aren’t always strangers. Too many times, it’s someone already in a senior’s orbit: a fellow church member, a caregiver, a relative, a neighbor. That person has easy access. They can also cut a senior off from the very people who would protect them.

The numbers are staggering, and they’re getting worse. In 2025, Americans aged 60 and older filed 201,266 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center — about 20 percent of all complaints filed that year. But they reported $7.749 billion in losses, roughly 37 percent of all the money reported lost. The average loss for an older victim was $38,501, nearly twice the average across every other age group. One-fifth of the reports. More than a third of the money.

What Actually Helps

Scheduling regular calls or visits with the seniors in our lives is one of the most practical things any of us can do. Seniors need that human connection more than we realize in our busy lives. Anti-fraud education and open communication among seniors, family members, and caregivers can stop fraud before it starts. The more we know about how scammers operate, the more protected we all are.

Three things worth doing:

Make it standing, not occasional. A weekly call at the same time every week is worth more than an unpredictable one. It becomes something to count on — and something whose absence gets noticed.

Ask about new people, gently. Not an interrogation. Just genuine curiosity about who they’ve been talking to lately. A new friend who calls constantly but can never quite meet in person is worth knowing about.

Talk about scams before one happens. Shame is what keeps victims silent. If we’ve already talked openly about how sophisticated these operations are, and about how they take in doctors and pilots and police officers, then admitting it later isn’t an admission of stupidity.

If you or someone you love has been targeted, the Department of Justice runs the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311), Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern. It’s staffed by people trained to work with older adults, and the call costs nothing.

Isolation is the vulnerability, connection is the protection, and getting seniors talking to others is itself an anti-scam intervention.