AI-Powered Elder Fraud Forces Caregivers Into Financial Gatekeeper Roles

AI supercharges elder fraud targeting vulnerable seniors

A widow lost more than $7,000 to scammers who claimed they'd worked with her late husband to cover up tax evasion. The fraudsters had mined obituaries using artificial intelligence to identify vulnerable targets, according to Clayton LiaBraaten, senior executive spokesperson at Truecaller, a caller ID and spam blocking app.

By the time her adult son discovered the scam, the money was gone. The family's only recourse was to lock down her bank accounts and require her children's approval for any financial transactions.

This scenario is playing out across thousands of American families as AI makes elder fraud harder to detect and easier to execute at scale. The FBI received more than 200,000 cybercrime complaints from victims aged 60 and older in 2025, totaling nearly $8 billion in losses—figures experts say are significantly underreported, according to details first reported by USA TODAY.

Sandwich generation caregivers become financial gatekeepers

Adult children already stretched thin caring for both their own children and aging parents now face an additional burden: filtering every call, text, email, and piece of mail their parents receive to prevent financial devastation.

Ian Bednowitz, general manager at LifeLock, experienced this firsthand when his mother's paid caregiver stole her identity to open fraudulent loans and credit cards. He cleared all sensitive documents from her home, redirected her mail to a third-party scanning service, and instructed her doctors not to provide paper records to caregivers.

"I was already under financial stress, taking care of my mom. You know, it's not cheap, to have caregivers in the home," Bednowitz said. "I can't tell you the despair and weight that I felt."

How artificial intelligence accelerates scam operations

AI has transformed the fraud landscape by enabling scammers to research victims, identify which schemes will work best, craft convincing scripts, and create deepfake images, voices, or videos. The technology allows criminals to make thousands of calls simultaneously.

"They don't necessarily commit the fraud on the first call," LiaBraaten explained. "They may just be gathering personally identifiable information to leverage against you in the future."

Cybersecurity expert Patrick Coughlin noted that criminals run their operations like legitimate businesses, often leveraging AI more effectively than American companies. The mental health toll compounds the financial damage, as victims and families experience shame and isolation. "The first thing people say is, 'How'd you fall for that?'" Coughlin said, noting this shame often prevents seniors from reporting scams quickly.

Why it matters

The convergence of AI-powered fraud and an aging population is creating a caregiving crisis within a crisis. Sandwich generation adults already managing dual caregiving responsibilities must now add financial surveillance to their duties, often at significant emotional and time cost. The scale of losses—$8 billion reported in one year alone—represents not just individual family tragedies but a systemic threat to elder financial security that will only intensify as AI tools become more sophisticated.

Prevention over reaction

Several companies now use AI to fight back, with apps like Carefull and Savi Security helping caregivers monitor accounts for suspicious activity. But experts emphasize prevention through open conversations about fraud trends and proactive data protection.

Bednowitz's advice is clear: "Don't wait until something happened, because then it's a lot harder to resolve. Make sure that you're protecting all of their data, not just their physical and mental health."

These details were first reported by Madeline Mitchell at USA TODAY.