Alaska leads the country in elder fraud complaints

Older Alaskans lost $8.17 million to fraud in 2024, and per person, Alaska filed more senior fraud complaints with the FBI than any other state.

Most of it was tech support scams, the kind where a caller or a pop-up claims your computer has been compromised and someone needs remote access, or payment, to fix it. The figures come from the Alaska Commission on Aging's most recent Senior Snapshot.

The Social Security Administration is now asking the organizations that help Alaskans navigate Medicare to hand out scam-awareness materials. "Scammers continue to impersonate government offices, threaten loss of benefits," and pressure people into sharing personal information or sending money quickly, the agency's chief communications officer, Nick Perrine, wrote to those partners this week. He asked them to remind people to verify any unexpected contact through Social Security's own channels rather than a number or link the caller provides.

Impersonation is the single most reported kind of fraud nationally, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Two things worth knowing. Anyone who thinks they have been targeted can report the contact to Social Security's inspector general. And if the agency does call someone back legitimately, that call comes with a five-digit PIN the person can use to confirm it is real.