SAVANNAH, Ga. () — In observance of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15, here are some tips from the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Atlanta Field Office to prevent financial scams.

In April, the FBI said seniors were victim to scams totaling $4.8 billion in 2024.

The IRS-CI said these are some of the most popular types of scams:

• Romance Scams – Involves pretending to be interested in a person, asking for money.
• Lottery Scams – Scammers inform consumers they have won a sweepstakes, or lotteries.
• Government Imposter Scams – Pretending to be from the IRS or other government agency to collect money from the victim.
• Grandparent Scams – Scammers call victims and claim to be in immediate financial need.
• Tech Support Scams – Use internet popups to warn of non-existent computer problems and pretend to be tech support to ask victim to give them remote access to computer.

To prevent these scams, various resources are available, such as the Internet Crime Center, Pass it On, or the National Elder Fraud Hotline.