Artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating elder fraud schemes across the U.S., targeting older Americans who hold a significant share of household wealth. ScamSkeptic founder Matt Sanner joins 'America's Newsroom' to highlight how fraudsters utilize AI to mimic voices and create deepfakes. Sanner provides key strategies for families to identify these scams and protect their vulnerable loved ones.
The moving truck hasn't even left the driveway. Somewhere, a scammer may already know three things about you: your name, your new address and something about your age. Maybe not your exact age, but potentially enough information to make you a more attractive target.
Federal law sets specific rules for communities that qualify as housing for people 55 and older. One requirement says at least 80% of occupied units must house at least one person who is 55 or older. Those requirements come from the Housing for Older Persons Act.
That means an address inside a known 55+ community can give scammers and data brokers another clue about you. Once public records connect your name to that address, data brokers can add it to a much larger profile.
That is the part nobody mentions in the moving checklist. Here is how that profile can come together so quickly. More importantly, here is how you can reduce the personal information scammers can find.
FIVE DATA BROKER OPT-OUT MYTHS THAT LEAVE RETIREES EXPOSED
Scammers can combine property records, people-search listings and community information to build convincing profiles of new retirement community residents. (Getty Images)
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Moving into an age-restricted community does more than change your ZIP Code. It can quickly create a new, highly concentrated data profile.
Each detail may seem harmless by itself. However, scammers can combine those details to build a convincing profile of you.
SELLING YOUR HOME? YOUR DATA IS ALREADY MOVING
Privacy experts recommend checking what information appears online, limiting community directory listings and requesting removal from data broker sites. (Getty Images)
Criminologists at Florida State University spent years studying financial exploitation inside a large Florida retirement community. Their findings should change how you think about your first few months in a new home. Residents told researchers that scammers targeted them immediately and repeatedly after they moved into the retirement community. They also faced scams far more often than before their move.
