AARP Fighting for You Against Fraud

AARP's advocacy efforts help protect older adults from scams and fraud. Here are some recent successes on the state and federal levels

AARP

Updated July 18, 2025

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En español

Published March 28, 2022

/ Updated July 18, 2025

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Consumer fraud is soaring. Reported losses to elder fraud totaled $4.9 billion in 2024, an increase of more than 43 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). But that's likely a fraction of the cost: Fraud is notoriously underreported — so much so that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that the amount of money stolen through fraud was as much as $158.3 billion in 2023 alone..

While education empowers older Americans to protect themselves, more is needed to fight this epidemic. That’s why AARP advocates for laws and regulations at the state and federal levels, supporting bipartisan legislation that strengthens consumer protections against scams. Recent efforts include:

AARP's federal testimony

In April, Kathy Stokes, Director of Fraud Prevention Programs, AARP Fraud Watch Network, testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions at a hearing on “Following the Money: Tools and Techniques to Combat Fraud.” In her testimony, she emphasized that fraud has become a national security threat, discussed the importance of improving law enforcement capacity to combat fraud, the tax burden some scam victims face, and more.
In June, Jilenne Gunther, the National Director of AARP's BankSafe Initiative, testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, "Scammers Exposed: Protecting Older Americans from Transnational Crime Networks." Gunther detailed AARP’s BankSafe Initiative, which partners with over 1,500 financial institutions to train frontline staff to detect and prevent fraud before money is lost. She also called for stronger legal authority for banks to delay suspicious transactions, improved cross-sector data sharing, and greater accountability from telecom and social media platforms.
AARP sent a statement for the record to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for their hearing titled “Stopping Illegal Robocalls and Robotexts: Progress, Challenges, and Next Steps.” In the statement, AARP highlighted the importance of combating illegal and unwanted robocalls and texts. AARP noted that criminals often target older adults because they have more accumulated savings, making them more lucrative targets.

AARP’s federal legislative advocacy work

AARP endorsed H.R. 2978, the GUARD Act. This bipartisan legislation would provide state and local law enforcement with federal grants to allow them to hire and train staff, and secure specialized software and other tools to improve their capacity to conduct fraud investigations. This will ensure law enforcement has the tools they need to lock up the criminals who victimize older Americans.
AARP endorsed S.1773/H.R.3429, the Tax Relief for Victims of Crimes, Scams, and Disasters Act. This legislation would reinstate the casualty and theft loss deduction, better ensuring fraud victims don't have to pay taxes on stolen funds. Currently, if you have money stolen from retirement or other taxable accounts, the IRS may tax you on money you already lost to criminals. This legislation will help end the injustice currently written into the tax code by allowing victims to deduct the amounts stolen from them on their taxes.
AARP endorsed H.R. 1027, the Quashing Unwanted and Interruptive Electronic Telecommunications (QUIET) Act. The QUIET Act mandates transparency from robocallers, requiring them to disclose upfront when artificial intelligence is used to imitate human voices in calls or text messages. Additionally, the legislation doubles financial penalties for those who use AI to impersonate individuals, commit fraud, or obtain valuables under false pretenses.
AARP endorsed H.R. 1469, the Senior Security Act of 2025, which would help combat financial exploitation by creating an interdivisional task force at the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine and identify challenges that older people face while investing. The bill would also require the Government Accountability Office to study and report on the economic costs of the financial abuse of older Americans.
AARP endorsed S.1699, the Artificial Intelligence Public Awareness and Education Campaign Act, which would launch a comprehensive public awareness, education, and consumer literacy campaign to educate consumers about the prevalence of AI in their daily lives. Empowering older Americans with this information will not only help protect against fraud and abuse but also inform them of AI's positive potential to assist with daily tasks.
AARP endorsed S.1666, the Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act. This legislation would streamline and improve the assistance provided by the Social Security Administration to individuals whose Social Security number has been stolen or misused. Identity theft and fraud are at an all-time high in the United States, and the range of fraud that can be committed with a stolen Social Security number is truly staggering.
AARP endorsed S.2019, the Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment Scams Act (TRAPS Act), which aims to protect older Americans from financial scams. This legislation would create a task force to combat digital payment scams. The task force — composed of financial regulators, institutions, and consumer advocates — would analyze fraud trends and develop strategies to enhance protections.
AARP endorsed H.R.1734/S.2117 the Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act. This bipartisan legislation will establish a dedicated task force on AI in financial services that would include representatives from key financial services regulatory agencies, financial institutions, third-party vendors, and AI experts to explore the use of AI in the financial sector to commit and detect fraud.
AARP endorsed H.R.2808/S.1467, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation takes important steps to protect older Americans — who make up more than 75 percent of U.S. homeowners — from misleading and fraudulent solicitations during home transactions. By requiring consumers to opt in before their credit inquiry data can be sold and limiting the use of mortgage “trigger leads,” the bill helps prevent scams that exploit major life events like buying or selling a home.
AARP endorsed H.R.306, the Ending Scam Credit Repair Act, or “ESCRA.” This bill would address issues in the credit repair industry. Credit repair organizations (CROs) often exploit customers by falsely promising that they can repair a consumer's credit score. ESCRA would introduce new rules to shield consumers from misleading and fraudulent practices.

AARP’s federal comment letters

AARP submitted a comment in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPB)s advance notice of proposed rulemaking on “Fair Credit Reporting Act (Regulation V); Identity Theft and Coerced Debt.” AARP expressed support for the bureau’s efforts to protect older adults from the adverse financial impacts of elder abuse, including identity theft and coerced debt, which is debt caused through threat, force, or fraud. Identity theft and coerced debt have been the most common types of fraud reported to the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline for the past two years.
AARP submitted a comment in response to the CPB’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking on “Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices (Regulation V).” AARP emphasized the role that data brokers have played in facilitating fraud against older adults, and urged the CFPB to put appropriate protections in place regarding the handling of consumer data..

AARP's successes in winning approval for stricter consumer protections at the state level

Multiple states: Prevent real estate scams. Thirty states enacted legislation against the predatory practice of unscrupulous real estate brokers who misled homeowners into signing decades-long agreements that gave the brokers the exclusive right to sell the homes. The bills enacted in these states are based on a model bill designed by AARP and other national stakeholders. It prohibits service agreements of more than one year, makes the agreements nonrecordable in the deed or property record, and blocks liens or encumbrances associated with the land. It also prohibits locking homeowners into exclusive long-term real estate listing agreements and imposes penalties on brokers who do so. Samar Jha, governmental affairs director for AARP, worked on developing the model bill and assisted the state offices in advocating to pass the legislation. (Learn more on this episode of AARP’s The Perfect Scam podcast.)

Maryland: Curb gift card fraud (tampering and payment scams). With AARP’s help, ten states this year have enacted legislation advancing legislation aimed at curbing gift card fraud. Criminals use gift cards in their fraudulent activity through collecting the information directly from the victim or tampering with the card so they can steal its value. AARP is working to protect against gift card fraud by supporting bills that educate customers, encourage reporting and increase penalties..

Multiple states: Regulate cryptocurrency ATMs/kiosks. Sixteen states have passed anti-fraud legislation regulating cryptocurrency kiosks/ATMs. AARP Fraud Watch Network has increasingly received reports over the past few years of criminals directing victims of fraudulent schemes to pay via cryptocurrency ATM/kiosks, which look and operate like bank ATMs but are largely unregulated at the state level compared to traditional financial institutions. AARP is advocating for these new state laws, which will install important consumer and anti-fraud protections that will deter criminals from leveraging crypto kiosks in their scams. Among them: allowing refunds for certain victims of fraud, setting daily transaction limits for customers, and requiring live customer service and fraud disclosures.

West Virginia: Prevent legal claims from dying with the victim. West Virginia passed AARP-supported legislation that would ensure legal claims can continue even if the person who could recover or the person who is liable dies. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled that a claim for fraud does not survive the plaintiff’s death. The new law reverses this decision, protecting older adults from unfair debt collection practices and scams, which often exploit their vulnerability, knowing that cases may be dismissed upon death.

Idaho, Maine and Vermont: Allow financial institutions to pause suspicious transactions. Idaho and Maine both passed bills allowing financial institutions to briefly freeze a transaction or disbursement from a vulnerable adult’s account if they suspect that person is being exploited and report their concerns to authorities. Vermont established a study committee to propose similar legislation next year.

Also on the state level: Restitution for victims

AARP is pursuing state legislation — a consumer fraud restitution fund — that would provide a means for a state’s attorney general to get money back to victims. Each year, attorneys general collect civil penalty payments from consumer fraud enforcement cases. When there are victims associated with a case, the money collected is restitution and goes to compensate them. Excess money, in most cases, goes into the state’s general fund.

Under AARP’s model bill, excess money would instead be directed to a new fund. The state attorney general would use that money to pay restitution to consumers defrauded in cases in which the attorney general was unable to collect money from scammers. In 2025, Minnesota became the first U.S. state to create this state-level comprehensive consumer fraud restitution fund. Its fund will utilize half the state’s undistributed civil penalty money — up to $5 million per fiscal year — for the restitution.

Similarly, Nevada approved a securities fraud restitution fund this year, which will help reimburse victims of security law violations using funds recovered from fraud cases. The fund is designed to assist those who have been awarded restitution but have not received full payment.

More ways AARP is working for you

AARP Fraud Watch Network leads an effort to fundamentally change how our country responds to the crime of fraud. The team reaches out to federal and state agencies, other nonprofits, the news media and consumers to change the narrative on fraud victims. The goal is to increase understanding that fraud is a punishable crime, that the perpetrators are largely transnational organized criminal enterprises funding atrocities such as human trafficking, and that fraud is not the fault of victims. We aim to convince federal and state law enforcement to do more to pursue these criminals. Learn more by watching a TEDx Talk by Kathy Stokes.
AARP's award-winning BankSafe Initiative offers free online training to bank and credit union employees to help them identify and stop suspected fraud before money leaves a customer’s account. The initiative expanded to the retail sector to encourage frontline employees in stores to intervene when a customer appears to be buying gift cards at the direction of a criminal.
AARP Fraud Watch Network’s site (aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork) includes news on fraud and scam-fighting tips to thwart criminals. You can sign up for biweekly Watchdog Alerts by email or text to stay on top of the latest schemes.
The AARP Fraud Watch Network also offers online group support sessions.