Scams & Fraud

AARP advocates on policy issues that matter most to Maryland residents age 50 and over and their families. In our state legislative advocacy efforts, we rely on our hundreds of volunteers and more than 800,000 members across Maryland.

Join Washington Metro Oasis and AARP Maryland at Macy's Home Store in Bethesda on October 31 and November 2 and learn how to protect your personal information, email, financial data, and devices from this growing threat. Enjoy the workshops in person, or online via Zoom.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month – a great time to remind ourselves just how much of our lives happen online and what threats exist there.

The week of October 3 is World Investor Week, a great time to remember that the too-good-to- be-true investment opportunity often is exactly that. Investment scams are among the oldest out there. With lots of people looking for a way to make money on investing, there are at least as many looking to take it away. One area where investment scams have thrived as of late is in cryptocurrency, which has taken a quantum leap recently.

U.S. veterans are disproportionately targeted by scam artists, with 35 percent of veterans losing money to fraud compared with 25 percent of civilians, according to a 2021 AARP survey.

Staying a step ahead of the scammers is like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Research shows that people who know about a specific scam are 80% less likely to engage with it, but how can you stay up to speed on all the different threats? One great tool is the AARP Fraud Watch Network’s Watchdog Alert.

Too Good to be True?

No matter the season, plenty of us are looking to slim down, and scammers hope to pack their pocketbooks while we all try to unpack the pounds. In 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission, bogus diet products and programs accounted for nearly 30% of all complaints in the category of health care scams.

Certain scams can come and go but there is one that never seems to fade away – the Social Security impostor scam. According to the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline, Social Security impostor scams were the most frequently reported type of scam in 2021. In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission, there have been nearly 312,000 reports of Social Security impostors, with overall losses topping $95 million over the past 5 years.

When it comes to the labor market, the supply of jobs is outpacing demand but that doesn’t mean that employment scams have gone away. With many workers looking for a side hustle to help make ends meet, there are still enough potential victims to fuel these schemes.