With rise of crypto and AI scams, fraud targeting Idaho seniors doubled in 2025

According to a new report from the Idaho Department of Finance, Idahoans lost $88 million to scammers last year, with fraud targeting seniors doubling from 2024 to 2025.

Data from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center shows Idahoans over 60 lost about $37.4 million to scams in 2025, up from $18.7 million the year before.

“We know that most people don't report, due to shame or not being able to recover their funds,” said Celia Kinney, the consumer affairs program coordinator at the department. “So this is a very small slice of what's actually going on.”

While seniors represented a quarter of complaints, they accounted for 42% of the losses reported in Idaho. On average, they lost a staggering $33,000 per scam.

Seniors were particularly vulnerable to investment and tech support scams, as well as government impersonation and romance hoaxes. The department also saw a sharp uptick in cryptocurrency scams, which accounted for more than half of the reported losses in the state in 2025.

Isolated individuals are more at risk of being victimized – and seniors can be particularly vulnerable – but scammers go after people of all ages, Kinney said.

“This is their full-time job and with AI, it just makes it that much more automated," she added. “Unfortunately with seniors, because they have life savings built up, they're the biggest targets.”