“Move your money to keep it safe.” That’s the scam.

The instruction sounds like a rescue: your money is in danger, so move it somewhere safe. The Federal Trade Commission warns that this demand is itself a scam. The person frightening you may also be offering the transfer that lets them take the money.

Reported: about $3 billion in fraud losses by adults 60 and older in 2025, according to the FTC’s October 19 release. The FTC’s own estimate of the real toll: as high as $119.5 billion.

Investment-scam losses reported by older adults exceeded $1 billion, up 42% from 2024. That means roughly $1.42 reported lost for every dollar in the prior year.

Older adults reported losses less often than younger adults, but when they lost money they lost more. For people 80 and older, the median reported loss was $2,000, the FTC says.

The emergency puts the caller in charge

The supposed danger can make a strange instruction feel urgent. A caller claims authority, names a threat and offers a procedure to protect you. If the procedure requires transferring money at their direction, the promise of safety becomes the mechanism of the theft.

The FTC’s advice is to stop that chain. End the contact and reach the institution through a number you independently know is genuine. A number supplied by the suspicious caller keeps the verification inside the same story they control.

A family can make this easier before a frightening call arrives. Agree on who to contact and how to check an urgent payment demand. The plan should make pausing and asking for help a normal response, rather than something a person feels embarrassed to do.

The counted losses leave damage out

The $3 billion figure comes from reports submitted to a complaint system. It cannot include losses that never reached that system. That matters when reading the report’s much larger estimate of what fraud may actually have cost older adults.

Under different assumptions about unreported cases, the report estimates total 2025 losses between $13.3 billion and $119.5 billion. Neither endpoint is an audited tally of individually identified thefts. The wide range reflects how uncertain the missing damage is.

When money has already moved

Contact the bank, card issuer, transfer service or payment app promptly. Explain that the payment involved a scam and ask whether it can be reversed. FTC guidance breaks the response down by the method used to send money.

Recovery cannot be guaranteed. An unsolicited caller offering to retrieve the money should not receive trust simply because the first loss has made a refund urgently desirable.

Report the fraud through ReportFraud.ftc.gov. A report may help authorities recognize the same operation elsewhere even if it cannot recover this payment. The person targeted needs the next useful step, not blame for being persuaded by someone who practiced the deception.