Scams involving Internet auctions, as well as identity theft, lotteries, prizes and sweepstakes, top the list of fraud complaints by older Americans, who lost $152 million to con artists last year, U.S. officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday.
Internet-based scams are growing and now account for about 41 percent of fraud complaints the Federal Trade Commission receives from people over 50, Lois Greisman of the FTC's consumer protection division told the Senate Committee on Aging.
"This figure is all the more dramatic when one considers that Internet-related fraud represented only 33 percent of all fraud complaints from this age group in 2002," she said.
Older consumers reported being defrauded of more than $43 million last year through Internet scams, with online auctions topping the complaint list, she said.
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