Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General says people 70 and older lose more money per scam than victims under 70. The finding comes from Issue 20 of the office’s quarterly scam report, which covers April 1 through June 30, 2026, the third quarter of the federal fiscal year.

The measure is the average loss per victim, not total dollars. The report’s text does not print the dollar gap between the two age groups, and it does not say which group is hit most often. In the same quarter, 451 people under 50 reported losing money, compared with 385 people aged 50 and older.

Higher average losses after 70

The Issue 20 report compares what victims reported losing and finds that individuals 70 and older reported higher average losses than those under 70. A per-victim average describes how much goes missing when a scam works, and it can run high even when fewer people report a loss.

The same report puts the broader trend in context. Scam reports to the inspector general have fallen significantly since 2021, it says, but the Federal Trade Commission still ranks Social Security-related scams as the top reported federal government impostor scam.

That leaves a practical question for anyone who has had a call, text or email claiming to be from Social Security and asking for a payment. The inspector general’s answer is a short list of things the agency never does, and a request for any one of them means the contact is not real.

Retirement deadlines, in your inbox: Miss an enrollment or claim deadline and the money can be gone. Join the Retirement Money Brief and we’ll send you our Scam & Identity-Theft Action Card as a welcome gift.

Get the Brief + the scam action card →

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

What Social Security and its inspector general never ask for

Social Security’s inspector general spells out the rule in a scam warning on its home page. It says Social Security and the inspector general will never take these steps:

• Ask a person to transfer money to protect it
• Meet in person to exchange cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency or gold bars
• Require a person to keep information secret or confidential

The Issue 20 report adds a wider list from a June 2026 campaign called “Never Ever,” which the inspector general joined. It covers what federal agencies and their employees will never do, including suspending a Social Security number, telling someone to move money to protect it, asking for banking information, or demanding payment by gold bars, gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, payment apps or cash.

The first item is the story scammers like best: an account is in danger, so the money must move to a safe place. Social Security’s inspector general says that request never comes from the agency. The payment methods on the wider list share one feature, which is that they are hard to track once the money is gone.

The secrecy rule is the inspector general’s own, stated for Social Security and its own office. The cash and crypto rule reaches across federal agencies. Either way, a caller who wants a payment by those routes, or who says to tell no one, has failed the test.

Real names and fake badges

Impostors have learned to look official, and the inspector general’s reports show how. On April 28, 2026, the inspector general issued an alert titled “New Wave of Imposter Scams: Criminals Using Real SSA Employee Names and Fake Badges.” It warns that scammers use real employee names, fake badges and fraudulent social media profiles.

The complaints lean on problems that sound urgent. In the quarter, 12% mentioned a problem with the Social Security number, up from 8% the quarter before, and 12% mentioned a problem with benefits, up from 10%.

Paperwork is part of the act. The report says 22% of complaints in the quarter involved documents or images, such as a federal logo, and 16% involved impersonation of other government agencies besides Social Security.

The behavior is not limited to Social Security. The FTC warned on Monday that callers are also posing as well-known charities and sweepstakes, and demanding a payment or a Social Security number. The names change, but the demand stays the same.

A caller who demands secrecy has answered the question

The inspector general’s test works because real agencies do not need any of these things. A genuine Social Security employee does not ask a person to protect money by moving it, does not collect cash or crypto, and does not ask anyone to keep the contact quiet.

The inspector general’s office has been pushing that message. In the quarter it shared 128 social media posts, took part in a June 4 webinar on shielding seniors from scams, and started a series of short scam-awareness videos in June.

A family member, a bank teller or a neighbor can end many scams with one question, and a demand for silence is built to stop that question from being asked. The report’s findings show who loses most per scam. The warning shows how to end the call: hang up, and take the story to someone else before any money moves.

Was the Social Security caller asking for cash?

A scam that works on someone 70 or older tends to cost more than one that works on a younger person, and money sent as cash, crypto or a transfer is hard to track once it leaves. The loss usually comes from the account that was reachable at the moment of the call.

Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend closes those doors ahead of time. It shows how to lock bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password, and how to set a family code word for fake grandchild-in-trouble calls.

The guide also carries a first-hour plan for a scam that gets through anyway, and a large-print edition.

Get the guide to locking bank logins and setting a family code word →

More Financial Reading

• 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
• 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
• 15 Ways Out of 22% Credit Card Interest

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.