Saturday, November 14, 2026
Older Americans are losing staggering sums to fraud. Last year, people over age 60 reported more than $7.7 billion in losses to the FBI, with the average loss exceeding $38,000. Because many scams are never reported, the true cost is much higher. New Yorkers of all ages are estimated to lose about $8.7 billion annually to online scams and crimes.
Increasingly, scammers are reaching potential victims through advertising on social media. Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers in Albany should protect New Yorkers by cracking down on scam ads and requiring platforms to act when they know or have reason to know that fraudulent content is being promoted or displayed.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Letitia James identified victims in Glen Cove, New Hyde Park and Commack who lost money after clicking on fraudulent investment advertisements on Facebook or Instagram. One victim lost more than $1.3 million, including savings set aside for her children’s college tuition, after responding to a fake Facebook ad.
Fraudulent ads are increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate content. They can feature familiar names and faces, imitate real investment opportunities and use artificial intelligence to create convincing images and videos. When they appear alongside posts from friends, family and local businesses, they can easily blend into an ordinary social media feed. Meta is not doing enough to stop them.
Recent research found that Facebook and Instagram are among the platforms most commonly associated with online scams. In fact, internal Meta documents reported by Reuters projected that roughly 10 percent of the company’s 2024 revenue, about $16 billion, would come from advertisements promoting scams and banned goods. The same documents estimated that Meta’s platforms served about 15 billion “higher-risk” scam advertisements every day.
Artificial intelligence is making the problem even more difficult. Scammers can now imitate voices, fabricate videos and create fake endorsements that make an advertisement appear legitimate. The better those tools become, the harder it will be for even cautious users to tell the difference.
At Stay Fraud Free, we work directly with seniors across Long Island to help prevent fraud before it happens. The volunteer organization was created to help older adults recognize common scams and protect their personal and financial information. Through presentations and community outreach, we walk through suspicious offers, common scam tactics, and what to do when you think you are being targeted.
For people living on retirement savings or fixed incomes, the financial consequences of fraud can be especially devastating. A successful scam can take money accumulated over decades, and victims may have little opportunity to recover what they lose.
Scammers may target older adults today, but increasingly sophisticated ads, and the enormous reach of social media, put every user at risk. Families and community organizations can help people recognize fraud, but stopping the spread of known scam ads cannot fall to consumers alone.
Stay Fraud Free will continue to help people recognize scams before they become victims. But known fraudulent ads should not continue to reach users while scammers profit from deception and platforms collect advertising revenue. New Yorkers deserve stronger protection from known scam ads on social media.
Maxwell Greenberg, the founder of Stay Fraud Free Long Island, a volunteer organization that educates seniors about scams and fraud prevention, is a 2026 graduate of Oceanside High School and a freshman at Harvard University.
