Financial institutions reported roughly $27 billion in suspicious activity related to elder financial exploitation during a one-year period from 2022 to 2023, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said today in a new financial trend analysis based on Bank Secrecy Act reports. FinCEN identified two predominant categories of reported victimization: elder scams, where the victim does not know the perpetrator, and elder theft, where the victim knows the perpetrator. Banks filed 72% of all elder exploitation-related BSA reports, with elder scams accounting for 80% of all reported activity.
The analysis revealed that most elder scam-related BSA filings referenced “account takeover” by a perpetrator unknown to the victim, that adult children were the most frequent elder theft-related perpetrators, and that illicit actors mostly relied on unsophisticated means to steal funds that minimize direct contact with financial institution employees, such as guessing passwords, according to FinCEN. FinCEN created new elder financial exploitation key terms for BSA reports in a 2022 advisory issued by the agency.
“FinCEN’s analysis highlights the critical role of financial institutions in helping to identify, prevent and report suspected elder financial exploitation,” FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said. “We are grateful for their vigilance and for the BSA information they have filed—and continue to file—in response to FinCEN’s 2022 advisory.”
