In one scam from the early 2000s, a scammer asked his "bait" to paint butterflies on his face. Nowadays, cryptocurrency schemes have depleted older Americans of about $2.8 billion in savings, according to the most recent annual report to Congress on the U.S. Department of Justice Activities to Combat Elder Fraud and Abuse.
I got a lot of emails like this one in the early 2000s. Maybe you did too.
"Dear Friend,
"Please this is important and very urgent i have an urgent transaction of US$20.6 million, used to transfer to your nominated account,I am Mr Abubaker Yaro. The Auditor, with Accounting Department of the BANQUE ATLANTIQUE-OUAGADOUGO BURKINA FASO.
"No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it,the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved is ($USD20.6 M) Twenty million Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only.
"If you provide me with your bank account information, we can transfer the..." (TechCrunch, August 9, 2007)
Looking back 20 years in the rearview mirror we feel all smug and knowing. Perhaps you are thinking "How could anyone fall for this phenomenally dumb con?"
Well, we did. The internet was new, we were naive and trusting, and we got robbed. Internet regulations were in their infancy and not widely effective. In fact these internet scams were so pervasive and so destructive of savings and psyche that victims got angry. Angry as in vigilante angry.
Hence the wild success of 419eater.com, established in 2006 to get even, i.e. scam the scammer. It is a scam-baiting website focused on advance-fee fraud. The name 419 comes from "419 fraud," derived from the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code. However, and this is important, as it says on the 419eater website, "While many of these scams originated from Nigeria, they now come from all over the world."
One anonymous scam-baiter wrote in the early 2000s, "My favourite
bait would be my butterfly guy-I told him that I was a nun from the Church Of The Sacred Butterfly, and I got him to facepaint butterflies on his face. The scammer paid an artist to have his face painted, and he paid a photographer to take the photos." (The Age, January 3, 2007)
The idea was to promise scammers access to scam riches if they just did quirky stuff, drove hundreds of miles to pick up nonexistent money, or any number of other ruses just to waste their time and resources and keep them away from the computer. The activities on both sides continue to this day.
A lot has changed since the quaint days of the Nigerian princes. In 2024 an international team of researchers at the University of Oxford ranked Nigeria a paltry fifth on a global index of cybercrime. Russia got the first prize, so to speak, followed by Ukraine, China, and the United States.
And speaking of the United States, the Department of Justice recently released the "Annual Report to Congress on Department of Justice Activities to Combat Elder Fraud and Abuse." Scary stuff.
Highlights during the reporting period, July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, include 283 enforcement actions involving 608 defendants and an eye-popping 1,034,630 victims. But wait, there's more. Hold onto your hats because the total amount stolen during these capers was $2,363,983,480. Wow. That's a lot of retirement savings wiped out. Maybe the Nigerian prince hasn't retired quite yet because more than a third of these scams were foreign (but not necessarily Nigerian) in origin.
There was no end of creativity exhibited by the scammers. Types of scams with the highest financial losses for older adults included:
Investment, $1,834,242,515
Confidence/romance, $389,312,356
Personal data breach, $254,187,196
Tech support, $982,440,006
Business email compromise, $385,001,099
Government impersonation, $208,096,366
In the booming scam business, not much can compete with cryptocurrency fraud. The report notes that this type of scam is so prevalent that the FBI and the United States Secret Service operate a joint program "to identify and notify potential victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud and prevent further financial loss."
This scam is so brutal and heartless that law enforcement officers commonly refer to it as "pig butchering." "Victims are coached to invest more and more money into what appears to be an extremely profitable platform, only to be unable to withdraw their funds."
As of June 30, 2025:
The FBI notified 6,475 victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud.
77% of those victims were unaware they were being scammed.
The estimated savings to victims was approximately $400,906,991.
64 victims were referred to an FBI victim specialist for suicide intervention.
Before being notified by the FBI about the scam, some victims reported they were in the process of liquidating their 401K plan savings, selling their home, or obtaining a large loan.
To report fraud or discuss related issues, call: National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833–FRAUD–11.
It's dangerous out there. Stay safe.
Lawrence D. Weiss is a UAA Professor of Public health, Emeritus, creator of the UAA Master of Public health program, and author of several books and numerous articles.
