Multi-State Grandparent Scam Bust: Millions Stolen From Elderly Victims

🚨 Nine arrested in NJ for sweeping elderly scam

🚨 FBI issues urgent scam alert

🚨 Scammers are getting more sophisticated and aggressive

A sweeping federal indictment is naming 16 people, including nine in New Jersey, in a far-reaching scam targeting elderly victims in the Garden State and beyond.

The U.S. Attorney's office says the scam resulted in the loss of millions of dollars.

Aside from the suspects named in New Jersey, federal investigators say additional bad actors were operating out of New York City and the Dominican Republic.

What was the scam?

Court papers say it was a classic grandparent scam.

The victim gets a phone call from a person claiming their grandchild has been in accident and has been arrested. The victim is then asked for bail money.

A second person will then call impersonating a police officer of a court official and arranges for payment.

In some cases, the victim is told to wire the money. In other cases, the scammers send a person to pick up cash in person.

The suspects in this scam targeted victims in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

FBI warns these scams are on the rise

The indictments were announced the same say the FBI issued an urgent warning about a sharp increase in scams targeting older Americans.

Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to a new FBI report.

“It can be a devastating impact to older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money,” said Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “People lose all their money. Some people become destitute."

Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI's report.

In at least 6,00 cases, the victims reported a loss of at least $100,000.

Scammers are more brazen and sophisticated

Most troubling in the FBI report is evidence scammers are becoming more technically sophisticated and aggressive in their pursuit of a score.

The rise in Artificial Intelligence technology is helping scammers convince their victims the scam is legitimate.

Warned for years about the danger of buying gift cards, wiring money or other on-line transactions, scammers are also increasingly using that knowledge against their victims.

The FBI reports a rise in the number of live couriers being used to pick up money from their victims.

“A lot of the fraud schemes are asking victims to send money via a wire transfer, or a cryptocurrency transfer. When the victim is reluctant to do that, they’re given an alternative," Barnacle said. “And so the bad guy will use courier services.”

Most common scams

The most common type of scam reported to the FBI is the so-called 'tech support scam." This is where the fraudster convinces the victim there is a problem with their computer or the computer has been breached.

In one such scam authorities say is rising in popularity, criminals impersonate technology, banking and government officials to convince victims that foreign hackers have infiltrated their bank accounts and instruct them that to protect their money they should move it to a new account — one secretly controlled by the scammers.

Of the 100,000 complaints taken by the FBI, more than 17,000 were tech support scams.

There has also been a rise in so-called grandparent scams. Victims are told a grandchild has been arrested or hurt and need money for medical care or bail.

Barnacle said investigators are increasingly seeing these scams operated as part of organized, transnational criminal enterprises that target older Americans.

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