The GUARD Act & Elder Fraud

Good Morning Thread Readers.

Last year, Americans lost more than $16 billion to fraud, and older women are among the fastest-growing targets. Women who lose retirement savings to fraud in their 60s or 70s cannot recover through re-employment, often have no spousal income backstop, and typically face 15 to 25 more years of living expenses. The financial wound is permanent.

Senate Aging Committee Chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have made combating elder fraud a bipartisan priority. In December, the Senate passed the SCAM Act to dismantle foreign fraud compounds. Now, Senators Gillibrand and Katie Britt (R-AL) are taking the next step with the GUARD Act (S. 2544), legislation that gives state and local law enforcement the tools they need to track down scammers and protect seniors from financial ruin.

On February 5, the bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and now awaits a full Senate vote. Representatives Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced companion legislation in the House (H.R. 2978), which has been referred to the Judiciary and Financial Services Committees.

Let’s dig in.

In 2024, seniors over 60 lost $4.8 billion to fraud reported to the FBI, a 43% increase from the prior year, with an average loss of $83,000 per victim. The FBI received 147,127 complaints from adults over 60, a 46% jump, and more than 7,500 individuals reported losses exceeding $100,000. And that’s the floor; the FTC estimates the true cost to older adults could be as high as $81.5 billion.

Research has consistently shown that women are nearly twice as likely as men to be victims of elder financial exploitation. A February 2026 AARP survey found that about 1 in 6 adults 50 and older say they or someone they know has had money stolen through a romance scam, with women in their 50s and early 60s targeted at more than double the rate of those 65 and older.

The Aging Committee’s 2025 “Age of Fraud” report documented the growing role of AI and cryptocurrency. Voice cloning tools now require as little as three seconds of audio to impersonate a grandchild or bank representative. Cryptocurrency was involved in roughly $2.8 billion of the $4.8 billion in reported elder fraud losses.

🚨 New Term Alert

“Pig Butchering”

A type of investment scam where fraudsters build fake relationships to lure victims into fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms.

During this week’s recess, Rep. Nunn convened a roundtable in Des Moines, IA, to bring together law enforcement and community stakeholders to discuss how the GUARD Act could help combat financial scams.

The GUARD Act is one piece of a broader bipartisan legislative push coming out of the Aging Committee:

• The SCAM Act (S. 2950), led by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), passed the full Senate in December 2025 and targets foreign scam compounds, enables sanctions against transnational criminal organizations, and establishes a federal task force.
• The National Strategy for Combating Scams Act (S. 3355), led by Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Ashley Moody (R-FL), would create an FBI-led working group to unify the 13+ federal agencies currently working on fraud independently and establish a common definition of “scam” for the first time

Together, these bills attack the problem from every angle: dismantling overseas scam infrastructure, arming local law enforcement, coordinating the federal response, and holding financial institutions accountable.

Send this to your favorite seniors, friends, and family today. Our friends at the AARP Fraud Watch Network offer these tips to protect yourself and the people you love.

• Establish a “Safe Word.” With AI now able to clone voices from just seconds of audio, agree on a family safe word to verify identity during “emergency” calls.
• Hang Up and Call Back. If a bank or agency calls with an “urgent” problem, hang up and dial their official number directly from your card or a past statement.
• Don’t Click, Just Type. Never log in through a link in a text or email. Always type the official URL into your browser or use the company’s verified app.
• Double Your Defense. Use a password manager for unique logins and enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). It is the single most effective way to block unauthorized access.

Facts Be Told

Romance scams cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars each year, with older adults losing the most money and scammers relying on a familiar playbook of lies, nearly a quarter leading with “I or someone close to me is sick, hurt, or in jail” to exploit their targets.

Romance Scam Reports By Age Group

The following superstars have demonstrated bipartisan spirit and a commitment to women and families, or represented the USA beautifully.

• Andrea Cubillos, Carla Picasso, and Bill Rockwood with Sen. Gillibrand (D-NY)
• Caroline Moore and folks on Team Britt with Sen. Britt (R-AL)
• American women on the ice in figure skates and hockey skates
• Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, for rising in the ranks in education. Thank you, Nicholas Kristof, for your piece.

February 20th — Today in History

1872 — New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens

1933 — US House of Representatives completes congressional action to repeal prohibition

1962 — John Glenn orbits the Earth

“We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest.”

— John Glenn

Born in Cambridge, Ohio, July 18, 1921

Died in Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 2016

Be kind to one another.