MA couple's life savings wiped out after scam involving Apple gift cards. Now, they're doing gig work just 'to survive'

Americans aged 60 and older mislaid $4.8 cardinal past twelvemonth to scams, according to a study by the FBI (1). A Massachusetts couple’s communicative shows conscionable however rapidly cautiously amassed savings tin disappear.

It each started erstwhile the Fall River couple, Arthur and Kathleen Holley, noticed an unexpected complaint of $4,000 from ‘Lexus Institute Financial,' the couple's girl Melissa Heroux told NBC 10 (WJAR) (2). Since the mates didn’t ain a Lexus, Arthur tried to quality the complaint with the bank. But erstwhile helium received a instrumentality telephone from what helium believed was the bank’s fraud department, a scammer rapidly took power of the situation.

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Unwittingly, Holley followed the instructions laid retired by the scammer. He withdrew $7,000 from his account, drove to the Apple Store and bought thousands of dollars successful Apple acquisition cards. After helium submitted the acquisition paper codes to the scammer, they disappeared with the money.

“They had him frightened that it was him that did it. They threatened to telephone the FBI,” Heroux told NBC 10. “So, he’s freaking out.”

Left with nothing, the couple, 74 and 72, person been forced to prime up gig enactment “to survive,” she said.

The Holleys aren’t the archetypal seniors to autumn prey to scammers. And, unfortunately, they apt won’t beryllium the past victims of this communal scam.

Fraudsters are targeting American retirees and getting distant with billions of dollars each year. Although younger radical tin besides suffer wealth to scams, the FBI information shows that adults 60 and older mislaid adjacent to doubly arsenic overmuch past twelvemonth than the next-youngest cohort, $2.5 cardinal among 50 to 59 twelvemonth olds, and astir three-and-a-half times that of 30 to 39 twelvemonth olds, who mislaid $1.4 cardinal successful 2024 (1).

And these scams are connected the rise, with the fig of older adults reporting losses of $10,000 oregon much expanding much than fourfold betwixt 2020 and 2024 (3), according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Increasingly, bank-spoofing calls are capable to instrumentality retirees into handing implicit large bucks. A ‘bank spoofing’ is erstwhile the unfortunate receives a telephone call, substance connection oregon email that appears to travel from a morganatic root (4). For example, the caller ID mightiness accidental the sanction of your bank’s fraud department. Trusting the caller ID tin enactment seniors astatine hazard of falling into a scammer's trap.