Social Security’s inspector general counted 451 people under 50 who reported losing money to Social Security impostors from April 1 to June 30, 2026, against 385 people aged 50 and older. The headcount cuts against the idea that these scams are an older person’s problem. The same report says people 70 and older reported higher average losses than younger victims, so the two measures point in different directions.
A headcount that favors the young, an average that does not
Added together, the quarter’s two age bands come to 836 people who reported losses to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). By that count, about 54 percent were under 50 and about 46 percent were 50 or older. These are people who filed reports, not a rate across the whole population.
The split is not a one-quarter fluke. The OIG’s Issue 20 quarterly scam report says fewer people 50 and older reported losses than people under 50 in the first and second quarters of fiscal year 2026, and that the April-to-June quarter continued the pattern.
The people most likely to read this as a warning are anyone 50 or older who has assumed the headline scams were aimed elsewhere. Of the 836 people who reported a loss in the quarter, 385 were in that age band. The report does not rank any age group by how likely it is to be targeted.
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Average losses run the other way. The report says people 70 and older reported higher average losses than people under 70 in the first two quarters of the fiscal year, and that the April-to-June quarter continued that trend. The inspector general’s summary does not put a dollar figure on the gap.
The two numbers measure different things. A headcount shows how many people lost money, while an average shows how much each person in a group lost. The report keeps them apart, and a group can be smaller by headcount and still carry the heavier average loss.
What the callers said to people of every age
The common thread was a false identity. Eighty-one percent of the quarter’s allegations involved someone pretending to be from Social Security or the OIG, down from 87 percent in the January-to-March quarter. The report notes that percentages can exceed 100 in total because one allegation can include several traits.
Two pretexts grew. The share of allegations describing a problem with a Social Security number rose to 12 percent from 8 percent, and the share describing a problem with benefits rose to 12 percent from 10 percent. In both cases the caller opens with a problem only the caller can supposedly fix.
Separately, 81 percent of allegations involved a problem with a my Social Security account or direct deposit information, and 81 percent involved a request for a Social Security number or other personal information. Those overlapping figures show how often a single call combined an account story with a demand for identifying details.
The demand for payment tends to come last. The report lists gift cards, gold bars, cryptocurrency, wire transfers and cash among the hard-to-trace methods scammers request, and notes that they pressure victims to act immediately. Contact arrives by phone, text, email, social media or mail.
The inspector general’s advice for anyone who gets the call
The report tells people to ignore unexpected outreach claiming to be from Social Security or the OIG. It warns against trusting caller ID, because scammers can spoof government numbers, and against clicking links or downloading attachments from unknown senders.
To confirm a contact, it says to verify independently using publicly listed agency contact information. It also recommends opening a my Social Security account to guard against identity thieves, one of the few steps it lists that is taken before any call arrives. The OIG’s fraud-reporting page lists the warning signs of a scam contact.
Both age groups in the count reached the agency the same way. The figures are allegations made to the inspector general’s online scam reporting form and its hotline, the same channels a victim of any age is pointed to, alongside ic3.gov and ReportFraud.FTC.gov. Nothing in the report suggests older victims used a different route.
Fewer reports than in 2021, and the numbers the report leaves out
The overall direction is down. The report says scams reported to the OIG have decreased significantly since 2021, though Social Security and the OIG “remain vigilant.” Those allegations come mostly through the OIG’s online scam form and its hotline, so the counts reflect who chose to report.
The OIG also pointed to its outreach in the quarter, including a June 4 webinar called “Shielding Seniors from Scams: Awareness, Prevention, and Resources” and its part in the June Never Ever campaign for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, led by the Elder Justice Coordinating Council.
The report does not state a total loss figure for the quarter, and its written summary gives no dollar average for any age band. How large the 70-and-older gap actually is, and what it means for a household that collects a Social Security check, is not in the text.
Does a smaller headcount mean a household aged 50 and up can relax?
Smaller by headcount is not smaller by loss. The inspector general says people 70 and older reported the higher average losses, and a call that gets one answer can mean a drained account, a new loan or an opened credit line.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit puts the free credit-freeze steps, a first-hour recovery plan and a fraud evidence and report log in one place, so the steps after a bad call are written down before they are needed. Part 6, When It Is Family, covers scams that involve family.
Get the credit-freeze steps for a household of any age in the fraud defense kit →
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
- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
