Two-thirds of older adults expect to face financial scams as schemes grow more sophisticated
Older Canadians say even a relatively small fraud loss could disrupt their retirement plans, as two-thirds of adults aged 55+ expect to face financial scams in the next year, new research from Bloom Finance shows.
Bloom Finance’s findings indicate that fraud exposure among Canadians aged 55 and over is widespread.
According to the research, 87 percent of Canadians in this age group report receiving suspicious calls, emails, texts or letters in the past five years.
One in three say they have experienced impersonation scams involving someone posing as a trusted organization, such as a bank or service provider.
Nearly one-quarter (22 percent) report receiving direct requests for money or personal information from strangers, and 20 percent say they have experienced unauthorized charges or withdrawals from financial accounts.
The research notes that fraudsters increasingly use artificial intelligence to make scams harder to spot, contributing to more scams and larger losses in recent years.
The data was released as March marks Fraud Prevention Month in Canada.
Two-thirds of Canadians aged 55 and older feel at least moderately at risk of experiencing financial fraud within the next year.
Women report greater concern, with 18 percent saying they feel very at risk, compared with 11 percent of men.
The retirement implications appear material for many.
Nearly one-third (31 percent) of Canadians aged 55+ say a financial loss of $10,000 or less would significantly impact their retirement plans.
The findings highlight how the growing sophistication and frequency of scams are affecting Canadians approaching or living in retirement, a stage where unexpected financial losses can have severe and long-term consequences.
The study also looks at how open older Canadians are to discussing financial stress.
Over three-quarters (78 percent) of Canadians aged 55+ report feeling comfortable discussing financial stress with close family members.
Comfort tends to increase with age: 46 percent of Canadians aged 75+ say they feel very comfortable, compared with 40 percent of those aged 65–74 and 34 percent of those aged 55–64. Nearly one-quarter (22 percent) say they are not comfortable discussing financial stress.
“Financial fraud is becoming increasingly common, and seniors are unfortunately among those most at risk,” said Ben McCabe, founder and CEO of Bloom Finance.
He said Bloom has fielded many calls from seniors questioning whether money requests are legitimate and, in some cases, “been able to intervene before funds are lost,” with the aim of helping them protect their retirement savings.
