Regulators Report Surges In Investment Scams Targeting The Elderly

Posted on November 1st, 2022 at 1:14 PM
Regulators Report Surges In Investment Scams Targeting The Elderly

From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that older investors lost $147 million due to investment scams in 2021, which constitutes a massive 213% increase from 2020.

The schemes primarily involved investment seminars and advice, stocks and commodity futures trading, art, crypto, and rare-coin investments. According to the FTC, the median individual loss for people age 60 and older was $6,800 per instance of investment fraud. Furthermore, older investors lost a total of $341 million online, according to regulators.

State securities regulators also have reported a 70% increase in fraud related to digital assets in 2021, according to an enforcement report published by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). Additionally, the depressed market is helping crypto fraudsters as they primarily attempt to convince elderly investors, who are concerned about running out of retirement funds, that crypto could provide them with a better financial outlook, according to Amanda Senn, deputy director of the Alabama Securities Commissions.

Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.

Tags: eccleston, eccleston law, advisors, law

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