(FBI Press Release, May 15, 2026)
During an investigation of a fraudulent call center in India, Special Agent Ron Miller identified a potential American victim in her 70s likely being scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Miller, who is assigned to the Washington Field Office, uncovered the victim’s identity as part of an investigation that included monitoring shipments of bulk cash linked to the Indian-based call center targeting U.S. citizens.
Time is of the essence, so Miller quickly tried to contact the victim. “I knew the financial damage this could cause the victim,” he said.
The victim ignored Miller’s first two calls. She answered his third with suspicion and then hung up and promptly blocked his number. Undeterred, Miller reached the victim on her office phone, and they arranged to meet in person.
Miller eventually convinced her she was being scammed. “The victim just broke down emotionally in disbelief after realizing that she had lost her life savings to a scam,” Miller said.
The financial toll was devastating. The victim had already sent more than $500,000 in cash, wire transfers, and gift cards. She had also pulled out the equity in her once paid-off home.
The emotional impact can be as equally devastating, as scam victims often struggle with embarrassment, anxiety, stress, and depression.
The case is a prime example of how convincing and manipulative these criminals can be. The victim is a distinguished criminology professor with extensive knowledge in victimology.
“Almost anyone can be a victim,” Miller said. “These guys are just that good.”
According to a 2025 report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), complaints from victims over 60 exceeded 201,000 and reported losses were more than $7.7 billion. Complaints increased by 37% and losses by 59% compared to 2024.
The average reported loss for older victims was more than $38,000 in 2025, with at least 12,400 victims claiming losses of at least $100,000.
Older citizens are attractive targets for many reasons. First, they tend to have accumulated significant savings throughout their lives. Additionally, older victims may be driven by loneliness to communicate with strangers. And they can be more trusting of people, too, making them more likely to engage with unsolicited phone calls, text messages, and emails.
In phishing and spoofing scams, criminals send these types of unsolicited—but convincing—emails, text messages, and phone calls to request personal, financial, or login credentials.
Last year, more seniors fell victim to phishing/spoofing frauds than any other type, with more than 48,000 complaints—more than 24% of all claims, according to the IC3 report .
But the biggest money drain for seniors in 2025 continued to be investment schemes, with more than $3.5 billion in reported losses last year. Schemes that included cryptocurrency as an element ensnared more than 42,000 older victims, resulting in $4.3 billion in losses.
The professor that Miller uncovered fell victim to a government impersonation scheme, a scam in which someone poses as a government official to defraud a victim.
In 2025, government impersonation schemes generated 32,400 complaints across all age ranges, with reported losses of nearly $798 million. Among senior victims, IC3 logged more than 8,600 complaints about government impersonation scams.
Miller said the scammer claimed to be from the Drug Enforcement Administration and said her name and Social Security number had been linked to financial accounts associated with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The scammer also told the victim there was a warrant for her arrest.
“The best way to avoid scams is to ignore unsolicited communications, especially calls from unknown numbers. The longer scammers talk to victims, the more successful they are with the scam.”– Ron Miller, special agent, Washington Field Office
After the victim pleaded her innocence, Miller said, the scammer told her they did not believe she was guilty of any criminal activities. She was actually the victim of identity theft, they said—her information was likely stolen by the drug cartels they were investigating.
The scammer offered to help her by clearing her name of any criminal activities and protecting her assets from the drug cartel if she agreed to cooperate with the government.
Cooperation included strict secrecy. The victim could not tell anyone, including other law enforcement—like an FBI agent.
The scammer also told the victim that the drug cartels or the government might try to seize her assets. The best thing the victim could do, the scammer said, was to transfer all her money to the government for safekeeping in a “federal locker” or “government vault.”
While rapid reporting to IC3 can sometimes support the recovery of lost funds, “recovering money lost in scams, especially those originating overseas, is challenging and unlikely,” said Miller. “Typically, the money is long gone.”
The victim in Miller’s case can no longer look forward to retirement, Miller said.
“When the victim liquidated all her savings from her bank accounts and brokerage accounts, the scammer instructed the victim to cash out her home equity,” he said.
“They wiped her out of everything.”
Avoiding scams and frauds
Miller’s case highlights some traditional red flags:
- the demand for secrecy, which isolated the victim
- the sense of urgency to protect her assets.
- the fear of arrest by law enforcement unaware of the victim’s “innocence”
- a law enforcement agency requesting cash or valuables.
Other scam red flags include:
- unsolicited emails, phone calls, or texts
- requests to wire money
- requests to pay bills or legal fees with retail gift cards
- offers that are too good to be true
The best way to avoid scams is to ignore unsolicited communications, especially calls from unknown numbers. The longer scammers talk to victims, the more successful they are with the scam, Miller said.
“Just don’t engage,” he said.
Some common scams aimed at older people include:
- Grandparent scams: Criminals pose as relatives and claim they need money immediately.
- Tech support: Criminals pose as technology support representatives and offer to fix non-existent computer issues.
- Romance scams: Criminals develop online romantic relations with lonely seniors.
- Charity scams: Criminals collect money for fake charities.
- Contest/lottery scams: Criminals tell victims they have won money and just need to pay some fees to collect.
People who believe they are victims of a scam should contact their banks immediately. They should also file a report at ic3.gov and provide as many details as possible.
