CLIVE, Iowa — Elderly people across the country are increasingly falling victim to scams, according to the FBI's 2023 Elder Fraud Report.
In fact, the FBI estimates elderly people lost more than $3 billion in 2023 alone. Still, even that number doesn’t capture the full picture, since about half of the complaints filed don’t include the victim’s age.
It’s an issue Iowa isn’t immune to. Local 5 sat down with a Clive Police Detective Maurio Coleman to better understand how older Iowans have been impacted and how you can protect yourself.
Coleman has seen the elderly lose tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over scams. One victim lost more than $300,000 to a romance scam.
“You get to the point where you get these people who are so lonely and want companionship that they just believe it and they send this money to this individual that says 'Oh, I’m going to come to Iowa to marry you,'” Coleman said.
Of course, there’s always a catch, whether you need to help them pay for the plane ticket or get them out of a loan.
Coleman says there's nothing wrong with finding people to date online, just be weary if they start asking you to do anything financially.
Lottery scams are another big one. The promise of millions of dollars and a nice car can be hard to turn down.
“You have these people that would fall for that and they would send ten grand in cash to who knows where," Coleman said.
He remembers a case in which a woman was told to write a check with the first installment of money in order to get the car keys.
“I followed up with the bank and found out that the account that it belonged to was an older woman in Ohio," Coleman remembered.
That woman in Ohio wasn’t even a scammer: She was the victim of another scam. The $2,000 sent over was money she was promised through another scam. She then was told to send some of that money somewhere else.
“We call them mules," Coleman said.
Coleman explains that scammers sometimes go through multiple people in order to make it harder to trace things back to them.
There are multiple ways to protect yourself from becoming a victim.
Coleman suggests setting up a code word with loved ones in case someone calls pretending to be them.
If someone calls, saying that your loved one is in trouble and you need to send money to help them, call the loved one in question or someone you both know who can verify the facts.
Coleman remembers a case in which a scammer pretended to be law enforcement, telling a woman that her grandson was in a car wreck and that police found marijuana in his car so she needed to send money to pay for his bond.
It turns out, figuring out the whole situation was fake was as easy as calling another relative.
“Jimmy was like 15 years old and I believe the scam was that he was in Mexico or something somewhere going to jail and he needed to get the money to get out of jail," Coleman said. "Well, 15-year-old Jimmy was in school that day."
If law enforcement calls you, saying you owe money, hang up and call your local police non-emergency number to double check.
Being asked to pay through gift cards or Bitcoin is always a red flag. Someone pressuring you to act immediately and pay in a specific way should also set off your alarm bells.
Remember that scammers play you through your emotions. If you get an urgent call telling you that you owe money or that you won money, take a step back and think through the situation before getting swept up in your feelings.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
If you think you’ve been scammed, Coleman suggests contacting local law enforcement and filing a report at www.ic3.gov. Even if your case isn't solved at a local level, the ic3 site provides a pool of data that police in other areas can use. Sometimes information from a case in another jurisdiction can give law enforcement the data they need to detect a pattern and solve a case.