Seniors lost more than $1 billion falling prey to scams in 2023 alone as cybercrimes increased in popularity nationwide, leading to a seminar presented by the Pennsylvania State Police on the heightened risk of identity theft.

Individuals and organized crime groups often located overseas are using technology and emotional manipulation to target those aged 60 and older for their savings, Jacob Rhymestine, a public information officer with state police at Hollidaysburg, said Tuesday morning at the seminar hosted by AAA at its Altoona branch office.

“They may have retirement savings or are even seen as more trusting,” Rhymestine said. “Believe it or not, seniors are not the top people getting scammed. Millennials, with all the technology, there’s a lot more scam happening in that age range.”

But for seniors, scammers commonly use phone calls, emails, text messages, social media or even in-person scams. Rhymestine said when payment is involved, “you’re probably not going to get a text message as a notification.”

“You’re going to get something formal in the mail,” Rhymestine said.

However, he cautioned that “there are so many different scams out there” it’s hard to tell people, “hey, trust the mail” as scammers utilize physical mail as well.

“It’s very hard to be trusting of anybody that is reaching out to you anymore,” Rhymestine said.

Rhymestine went through different types of scams, beginning with one known as the government imposter scam. A caller will pretend to be from the IRS, Social Security Administration or Medicare and threaten to arrest the person who answered if they don’t resolve unpaid taxes.

“Government imposters may demand prepaid debit cards, cash or wire transfers as payments and use special technology to spoof the actual phone number of government agencies or from the ZIP code of Washington, D.C., for example,” Rhymestine said. “This can trick people into thinking the caller is from valid sources.”

Another “huge” scam is the grandparent scam, which Rhymestine said is “so effective because it exploits people’s emotions.”

Scammers will “do their homework” on a target before calling and look up personal information online, such as the names of family members or where they go to school. They then impersonate a grandchild and ask for help with car repairs, late rent, medical emergencies or to even post bond because they’re in jail.

“They pretend to be in distress,” Rhymestine said. “They may even beg the grandparent not to tell anyone.”

He said they “prey upon emotions to pressure victims into sending money as quickly as possible.” If this happens, Rhymestine said to ask for a number to call them back, then try to contact the grandchild or family member being impersonated.

Tech support scams prey on people’s discomfort surrounding computers and is at the top of the list for scams targeting seniors. Rhymestine said a person’s computer or phone may freeze or go blank, followed by a pop-up message with a phone number to call for help. When the person calls, the scammer will ask permission to log onto the device remotely, which will give them access to the person’s accounts and information.

Rhymestine gave the example of a woman who called the number and paid the individual $500 to “repair” her device. She “believed the repairs that were done were sufficient” and “was happy to pay these individuals.” The next year, the same incident occurred and trusted the individual to “fix” her device again.

This time, the individual asked her to wire the money and she sent $65,000 to a bank in California, Rhymestine said.

“She doesn’t know if it was an error and she was supposed to send $650, but she ended up wiring $65,000,” Rhymestine said.

The woman was ashamed of what happened and took about a month to notify authorities. As it was out of the 24-48 hour timeframe, Rhymestine said there wasn’t anything they could do since the money was immediately sent out of the country from California.

“She was ultimately embarrassed that it happened to her, and she felt that her family is thinking, ‘Is she able to take care of herself because she fell victim to that,'” Rhymestine said. “And that is absolutely not the case.”

Romance scams are “probably the biggest monetary value one we get into,” Rhymestine said.

In talking to the FBI for his presentation, Rhymestine said he learned of a wealthy State College woman who “was sending millions of dollars overseas to somebody that she believed she was talking to.”

FBI agents told her that she was “funding a criminal organization” with the amount she continually sent.

“The FBI agents actually went out to the house and told her in person, ‘You need to stop or you are ultimately going to get charged because this money is fraudulent. You’re funding all these criminals overseas because of this action,'” Rhymestine said.

According to the FBI, people over the age of 60 lost a total of $363 million to “sweetheart” scams in 2023.

Rhymestine said if “somebody is telling you to buy a gift card for payment,” it’s “a scam 100%.”

“You come call me if you find something legitimate,” Rhymestine said. “I’ll give you my whole entire paycheck because I’ve never seen it once.”

Rhymestine also advised against clicking links in promotional emails, saying to go directly to the website instead, as the email might be a phishing attempt.

“It takes you to the actual website, but as soon as you put in your login information, or if you buy something and you put your credit card information in, they have access to that,” Rhymestine said.

Rhymestine advised those in attendance to use strong passwords online, enable two-factor authentication for account access and keep software and antivirus up-to-date.

Phone numbers to keep handy include local police, your bank and adult protection services. Scams can also be reported through the Federal Trade Commission. Rhymestine said the Social Security Administration has a fraud hotline and state police stations are open “24/7/365.”

“Scams are specifically designed to catch you off guard and it can happen to anyone,” Rhymestine said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.