Experts Warn That Fraud Has Reached ‘Crisis Level’

(RepublicanNews.org) – Americans are losing billions of dollars annually from overseas scams, according to experts, who say the crime wave will only get worse as an aging population contends with rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) systems that make such fraud easier to execute.

AARP Fraud Watch Network director of fraud prevention Kathy Stokes is sounding the alarm about telephone and internet scams, which she said have increased “exponentially” in frequency. Stoke said the situation is overwhelming law enforcement and prosecutors, who only catch a handful of the perpetrators relative to the spike in such crimes. And even when they are caught and convicted, the victims rarely if ever get the money back that they lost.

Stokes called the fraud situation has reached “a crisis level” in society and that the ease of such scams is attracting more criminals. Aside from all of the money to be gained, she said there’s also “little chance” that they will get caught.

Former FBI agent Brady Finta, who used to supervise investigations into elder fraud, said “logistically and reasonably,” the crisis is becoming “almost impossible to overcome.” Rackets employing telephone and internet scams have become so pervasive that protective services and law enforcement simply lack the necessary resources to keep up.

Another issue, according to attorney Paul Greenwood, is that not all police departments and law enforcement agencies take such scams as seriously as they take other crimes. Greenwood spent over two decades working with defendants victimized by elder financial abuse and said they are often left demoralized and discouraged, especially after being told sometimes that the transactions were “consensual” even when they were tricked. He also noted that federal prosecutors usually do not get involved unless the amount stolen exceeds a certain number.

Victims are also reluctant to report on the crimes, often out of embarrassment. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the “vast majority” of such cases go unreported.

Americans who are 60 and older lose an estimated $28.3 billion annually to financial fraud, according to a 2023 study by AARP. With the rise of AI systems, which make committing these crimes easier, that number is expected to spike.