Idaho Seniors Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Scams in 2020

An investigation by KMVT News found seniors in Southern Idaho were defrauded of nearly $1 billion by online scams last year. Shawna Wasko at the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) Office on Aging said the rampant loneliness and isolation of the pandemic created ideal conditions for seniors' exploitation by scams, specifically phone scams. "Seniors will talk to people they don't know who call them on the phone where the younger generation will just hang up on them or will not answer," she noted. Compounding the problem is many seniors' refusal to admit victimization, because Wasko said "they are ashamed. They are afraid their kids will think they need to go to a home now because they were duped." The CSI Office on Aging's Lorae Conklin said scammers always seek to exploit national disasters, and current scams targeting seniors involve COVID vaccines. The Office's research estimates that one out of every 10 seniors is a target of a scam, and their best course of action is to hang up if someone they do not know calls and asks them for money.