Justice Department’s New Elder-Fraud Report Details $4.84 Billion in Alleged Losses

The Justice Department said Wednesday that defendants in federal elder-justice cases were charged with stealing, or alleged to have stolen, $4.84 billion from 711,353 victims. The figures cover 341 criminal and civil enforcement actions pursued from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.

Those actions named 712 defendants, and approximately 96% of the cases were criminal in nature. International schemes were involved in 45% of the cases, according to the department’s eighth annual report to Congress on elder fraud and abuse.

The dollar figure is consequential, but its meaning requires care. It reflects the amounts associated with cases the department pursued, not a verified nationwide total of money lost to scams during that 12-month period. Some defendants face unresolved charges, and the report makes clear that an indictment is an allegation rather than a finding of guilt.

What the $4.84 billion tally actually measures

The Justice Department’s 2026 report draws on enforcement work by the Criminal and Civil Divisions and U.S. Attorney’s Offices. These matters involved conduct that targeted older adults or affected them disproportionately. They are not limited to one kind of scam, and the broader report also covers abuse and neglect outside the financial-fraud context.

The enforcement summary specifies 341 actions and says that 78% of U.S. Attorney’s Offices participated in some form of elder-justice enforcement during the reporting period. A single action may concern large numbers of victims, so the victim count should not be interpreted as a count of separate prosecutions or as evidence that every identified victim lost an equal amount.

There are other boundaries around the data. The department says some cases were omitted because of their procedural status, including matters filed under seal. The report also includes criminal charges that are pending. Its $4,841,305,931 figure therefore describes alleged or charged conduct in the included cases; it is not a measure of restitution ordered, money recovered or losses established by final verdicts.

A different view of the problem comes from the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report. People age 60 and older submitted 201,266 complaints to the Internet Crime Complaint Center during calendar 2025 and reported $7.748 billion in losses. Those complaint totals increased 37% and 59%, respectively, from 2024, the FBI said. Its report also recorded 12,444 complainants in that age group who said they lost more than $100,000.

These are separate measures with different reporting periods and methods. The FBI figures come from complaints, while the $4.84 billion in the Justice Department report is tied to enforcement actions. The two amounts cannot be added together to calculate a national total, and a comparison between them would not establish how much was ultimately recovered or adjudicated.

International schemes and the frauds carrying the biggest losses

Nearly half of the department’s enforcement actions involved international schemes, a share that speaks to the geographic reach of the cases rather than the proportion of dollars stolen abroad. The report describes federal prosecutors working with overseas counterparts as fraud networks used cross-border communications and payment channels to reach people in the United States.

Officials identified more than 40 types of elder-fraud schemes during the reporting period. For a closer look at which scams generated the most reported financial harm, the report separately draws on the FBI’s 2025 complaint data. Among people 60 and older, investment scams accounted for about $3.52 billion in reported losses, and technical or customer-support scams accounted for about $1.04 billion.

Romance scams represented about $584 million in reported losses, while government-impersonation scams accounted for roughly $413 million. These figures belong to the FBI’s complaint-based categories, not to a breakdown of the Justice Department’s $4.84 billion enforcement tally. The FBI also identified $4.35 billion in losses involving cryptocurrency, a descriptor that can overlap with the underlying scam categories rather than a separate amount to add to them.

How often a scam is reported can differ sharply from how costly it is. Phishing and spoofing drew 48,064 complaints from people 60 and older in the FBI data, more than any other listed category. Investment fraud, with fewer complaints, accounted for the largest reported dollar loss. That distinction helps explain why complaint volumes and dollar totals can tell different stories about the financial damage.

The Justice Department offered concrete examples of the work behind its enforcement statistics. In one case, a Peru-based operator who supplied internet telephone services and caller-ID spoofing capabilities to fraudulent call centers was sentenced in September 2025 to 80 months in prison. The report says the operation caused more than $3 million in losses to over 8,800 victims in the United States.

Beyond domestic prosecutions, the department described assistance to an Indonesian prosecution of a romance-scam network targeting more than 150 Americans. Thirty-eight defendants were convicted in Indonesia in March 2026, with U.S. and foreign victims providing remote testimony. Such examples illustrate the need for cross-border evidence gathering without implying that every international case ended in a conviction.

Recovering money and helping victims

Enforcement counts offer only part of the picture for people trying to recover stolen savings. The annual report describes a separate effort to freeze assets or return forfeited funds, and the distinction matters: money frozen in an account is not automatically money repaid to a victim.

The FBI’s Recovery Asset Team figures in the report cover 642 incidents involving people age 60 and older, with approximately $65.4 million in reported fraud losses. Around $32.9 million was frozen. That result applies to the incidents included in the team’s figures, not to all elder-fraud complaints or the $4.84 billion associated with department enforcement actions.

Through the long-running Western Union remission process, the department returned more than $5.9 million in forfeited funds to approximately 2,000 victims during two payment phases, the report says. The underlying Western Union agreement dates to 2017. Those repayments show how restitution and forfeiture processes can extend well beyond the period in which a fraud was investigated or charged.

Victim assistance also featured prominently in the report. The National Elder Fraud Hotline received 87,800 calls during the July-to-June reporting period. Its staff submitted or helped callers submit 12,525 fraud complaints to the FBI or Federal Trade Commission. The hotline connects callers with case managers who can help explain reporting options and direct them toward other services when appropriate.

On prevention, the department reported participation in nearly 1,200 public-awareness and training events, with a stated reach of more than 62 million Americans. It also joined the Never Ever campaign against government and business impersonation scams, which the department said reached more than 95 million people. Those outreach figures describe campaign exposure and activities, not the number of fraud attempts prevented.

The department reported that Victims of Crime Act-funded organizations allocated $52 million to elder-abuse victim services. That support addresses needs beyond financial reimbursement, including helping people navigate the criminal justice system and obtain appropriate assistance after abuse or exploitation.

For people who believe they have been targeted, the Justice Department directs older adults and their families to the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311. The service operates Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, and can assist with reporting suspected fraud to the FBI or the FTC.