With layoffs in the news and plenty of people hunting for work, a particularly cruel kind of fraud is booming: scams that dangle a job and then drain the applicant’s bank account. Federal regulators say these schemes cost Americans about $150 million in just three months, and the fastest-growing version disguises itself as easy online…

The story reads like a warning label for a whole category of fraud. Federal prosecutors say an elderly woman was talked into handing over nine gold bars worth more than $137,000 to strangers who claimed to be protecting her, and was nearly pressured into draining $429,000 more from her retirement account before agents stepped in.…

If a text has ever told you that you owe a few dollars for an unpaid toll, with a link to settle it right now, you have met one of the fastest-growing scams in the country. These messages are not from any toll agency, and they have helped drive a sharp jump in scams that…

Of every kind of fraud the government tracks, one costs Americans more than any other, and it works by pretending to be someone you already trust. Consumers reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams last year. Buried in that staggering number is a single defensive rule that stops most of the costliest versions cold: no…

The people an older adult trusts most with money are sometimes the ones best positioned to take it. Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania say a woman born in 1936 was talked into moving her retirement savings into an account controlled by a man who sat on the board of her credit union, and that within weeks…

For households following a federal mail-fraud investigation turned inward, the key issue is where the money moves and which official record controls. The latest primary record supplies a concrete answer about a federal mail-fraud investigation turned inward while drawing limits that matter before anyone acts. Separating the verified dollars in a federal mail-fraud investigation turned…

The promise was a sweepstakes prize; the actual result was more than $5.6 million taken from at least 50 older people. Federal prosecutors say callers impersonating Publishers Clearing House demanded fees and taxes before winnings could be released. The victims’ average age was about 82, showing how a familiar brand and a made-up deadline can…

A Maryland woman was sentenced to 70 months and ordered to pay $1,655,640.76 for laundering romance scam proceeds through a shell company.

A courier charged in a gold bar elder fraud scheme allegedly used a one-dollar bill as a password to collect nine gold bars worth more than $137,000 from an elderly Hawaii woman.

The call arrived in two parts, by design. An employee the operation called an “Opener” phoned an older American and claimed to be a grandchild who had just been in an accident. Minutes later a “Closer” called back, this time posing as that grandchild’s attorney, and named a sum for legal fees. Federal prosecutors in…