The last message in your may have seemed completely harmless. It could have been a beach photo, a flight arrival time, a dentist appointment or an update about Dad’s cardiologist.
These are the everyday details that keep families connected. They can also give scammers the information they need to impersonate someone you love.
may already know your relatives’ names, phone numbers and addresses before making contact. Your family group chat can supply the current details that make the scam believable.
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YOUR SENIOR PARENTS ARE EASIER TO IMPERSONATE THAN YOU ARE
Scammers do not always need to hack an account. Instead, they may need only a few minutes and access to a data broker site. Sites such as Spokeo, Whitepages and BeenVerified may reveal your name, address history and phone number. They may also list your relatives, including your spouse, adult children, grandchildren and siblings. That information gives a scammer the outline of your family. Meanwhile, your family group chat can fill in the missing details.
For example, you might post that you just returned from Florida. Your daughter may mention that your grandson is backpacking through Europe. You might also share Dad’s next doctor’s appointment or the date the grandkids start at a new school. Those updates may feel private. However, they can become exposed if someone shares them elsewhere, posts similar details on social media or loses control of an account.
how criminals use this information in grandparent scams. A scammer may learn that a grandson is a photographer who often travels to Mexico. Then the caller claims to be stranded there after losing his passport and camera equipment. The story sounds believable because it includes real details. The FTC warns that scammers “may know your name, where you live, and other information they could have found on social media.” In other words, criminals can combine public records with personal updates to create a convincing lie.
In 2025, Americans age 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in losses to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, with more than 201,000 complaints filed. Here is the number that should stop you. A data removal service analysis of FBI data found that 72% of elder fraud cases in 2024 were enabled by victims’ personal data being available online. Those cases accounted for $4.2 billion in losses, or 86% of the total amount stolen.
An 86-year-old woman named Joyce received a call about her real grandson, Grant. The caller reportedly knew he wore glasses, worked as a teacher and was in his mid-20s. Her daughter-in-law later recalled, “There were comments like, ‘He’s such a nice young man. I love the glasses he wears.'”
Gary Schildhorn told the U.S. Senate Aging Committee about receiving a call from what sounded exactly like his son’s voice. The caller asked for nearly $9,000 in bail money. “There was no doubt in my mind that it was his voice on the phone,” he said.
