Senior Scam Prevention and Fraud Resources in South Dakota
South Dakota seniors reported $15 million in elder fraud losses to the FBI in 2025, with 398 victims aged 60 and older. This page provides South Dakota-specific scam prevention resources, official reporting contacts, and five years of FBI elder fraud data for the state.
Already been scammed? Read our First 24 Hours Emergency Guide for critical steps to take immediately.
I. Overview: South Dakota’s Senior Population and Key Cities
As of 2024, South Dakota has a population of approximately 910,000, with over 180,000 residents aged 65 and older, making up around 19.8% of the state’s population. South Dakota’s aging population is distributed across small towns and rural communities, with many seniors living independently or on fixed incomes , which increases vulnerability to scams.
South Dakota seniors lost $14.7 million to fraud in 2025. The standout: romance scams surged 510% from $644K to $3.9 million, becoming the #1 crime type. Government impersonation exploded 688% to $2.1 million. Investment scams actually decreased 27%. Geographic isolation remains a key risk factor.
The largest cities with the highest rates of scam reports and elder population density are:
- Sioux Falls (approx. 210,000 people)
- Rapid City (approx. 80,000 people)
- Aberdeen (approx. 30,000 people)
II. 2025 Victim Report: How Scammers Targeted South Dakota’s Seniors
In 2025, South Dakota had 398 victims aged 60+ who reported losses totaling $14,708,875 — up 54% in victims and 64% in losses compared to 2024 (259 victims / $9M).
Loss by Crime Type
| Crime Type | 2025 Loss | 2024 Loss | Change |
| Investment | $3,359,957 | $4,594,352 | -27% |
| Tech Support | $3,018,006 | $2,479,460 | +22% |
| Romance | $3,923,859 | $643,624 | +510% |
| Lottery/Sweepstakes | $696,450 | $121,770 | +472% |
| Extortion | $47,055 | $115,180 | -59% |
| Government Impersonation | $2,082,172 | $264,301 | +688% |
Elder Fraud Loss Trajectory — South Dakota
5-Year Elder Fraud Trend — South Dakota (2021—2025)
| Year | Victims (60+) | Total Loss | YoY Change | Nat’l Rank |
| 2021 | 183 | $4,821,701 | — | #39 |
| 2022 | 331 | $5,634,355 | +17% | #46 |
| 2023 | 369 | $3,804,551 | -32% | #51 |
| 2024 | 259 | $8,975,829 | +136% | #46 |
| 2025 | 398 | $14,708,875 | +64% | #47 |
| 5-Year Total | 1,540 | $37,945,311 | +205% (2021—2025) | — |
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Annual Reports, 2021—2025. Covers victims aged 60 and older. National rank is by total dollar loss among 52 states/territories. National totals: $1.7B (2021), $3.1B (2022), $3.4B (2023), $4.9B (2024), $7.7B (2025) — $20.8 billion stolen from American seniors over five years.
Top Crime Types Targeting South Dakota Seniors (2025 vs. 5-Year)
| Crime Type | 2025 Victims | 2025 Loss | 5-Year Total | Growth (2021—25) |
| Romance | 22 | $3,923,859 | $6,434,685 | +283% |
| Investment | 44 | $3,359,957 | $11,600,228 | +1,118% |
| Tech Support | 57 | $3,018,006 | $7,539,074 | +3,184% |
| Gov. Impersonation | 23 | $2,082,172 | $2,729,898 | +977% |
| Lottery/Sweepstakes | 21 | $696,450 | $3,379,305 | +38% |
| BEC | 9 | $557,351 | $784,824 | +517% |
Top 6 crime types by 2025 losses. Growth calculated from 2021 to 2025. For national crime type trends, see our Crime Type Migration Analysis.
What the data reveals: South Dakota’s elder fraud losses reached $14.7 million in 2025, up 64% from $9 million in 2024, with 398 seniors victimized (+54%). The most dramatic finding: romance scams surged 510% from $644K to $3.9 million, becoming the largest single crime category — an unusual pattern, as investment scams lead in most states. Government impersonation exploded 688% from $264K to $2.1 million. Investment scams actually decreased 27%. Statewide, that comes to roughly one senior victim for every 2,323 South Dakota residents.
National context: South Dakota ranks #44 in per-capita victim rate (43.04 per 100,000), below the national midpoint. The 510% romance scam surge is among the steepest in the country and suggests scammers are aggressively targeting isolated rural seniors through online dating and social media. South Dakota is one of only a few states where romance scams outpace investment fraud — a pattern that calls for targeted awareness campaigns.
For the full national picture, including how South Dakota compares to every other state, visit our national hub page with interactive data and rankings.
III. Emergency and Official Contacts
Local Police Departments – Elder Fraud and Financial Crimes
1. Sioux Falls Police Department – Investigations Division
- Phone: (605) 367-7212 (non-emergency)
- Website: siouxfalls.gov/police
- Handles fraud, ID theft, and elder exploitation cases.
2. Rapid City Police Department – Financial Crimes Unit
- Phone: (605) 394-4131 (non-emergency)
- Website: rcgov.org
- Contact for reporting phone scams, online fraud, and financial abuse.
3. Aberdeen Police Department – General Inquiries
- Phone: (605) 626-7000
- Website: aberdeen.sd.us
- Provides support for elder fraud complaints and community safety.
FBI and Federal Scam Reporting
FBI Minneapolis Field Office (covers South Dakota)
- Phone: (763) 569-8000
- Website: fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/minneapolis
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- Website: www.ic3.gov
- For reporting online scams, tech support hoaxes, phishing, and fraud.
South Dakota Attorney General – Consumer Protection Division
Office of the Attorney General – Consumer Protection
- Consumer Helpline: (800) 300-1986
- Website: atg.sd.gov
- Provides education and investigation for elder scams and deceptive business practices.
Statewide Elder Services and Medicare Fraud Support
South Dakota Adult Protective Services (APS)
- Central Intake: (833) 663-9673
- Website: dhs.sd.gov/en/ltss/dakota-at-home
- Handles elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation cases.
South Dakota Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP)
- Phone: (888) 854-5321
- Website: dhs.sd.gov/en/ltss/shiine
- Assists with Medicare billing scams, fraud prevention, and outreach.
South Dakota Department of Human Services – Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC)
- Info Line: (833) 663-9673
- Website: dhs.sd.gov
- Offers elder care coordination, legal assistance, and scam education.
Protect Yourself, Protect Others
- South Dakota seniors lose millions of dollars annually to fraud, often from avoidable or repeatable scams.
- Be cautious of anyone asking for personal info, money transfers, or gift cards over the phone or online.
- Visit our Education Center for examples of scams, response scripts, and secure reporting tools.
- Stop. Think. Report. You are not alone , help is here.
Recent South Dakota scam news
Recent news coverage of scams affecting South Dakota seniors, updated from our alerts desk. Each item links to the original outlet; victims and defendants are kept anonymous.
Older South Dakota resident loses more than $200,000 to a fake 'fraud department' scam
A South Dakota resident who reported computer trouble was contacted by someone posing as a bank fraud department, then as an FDIC official, who directed a series of wire transfers totaling more than $200,000 over several weeks behind a false home-remodeling cover story. Real banks and the FDIC never ask you to move money to protect it, so treat any such call as a scam and verify through a number you look up yourself.
Read at AOL →The 'phantom hacker' scam: how a months-long con convinces victims to hand cash or gold to a courier
Federal prosecutors describe a growing 'phantom hacker' scheme in which a caller falsely claims a victim's bank or investment account has been compromised, then, days or weeks later, someone posing as a government official tells the victim their money needs to be moved to a 'safe' government account to protect it. After building trust over an extended period, the scammers convince victims to withdraw cash or buy gold and hand it to someone who arrives in person posing as a government agent, sometimes claiming to be a U.S. Attorney or other official. In one related Arizona case, a victim transferred more than $400,000 in assets before realizing it was a scam. No real government agency or bank will ever ask you to withdraw money, buy gold, or hand valuables to a courier to 'protect' them, so if you get a call like this, slow down, hang up, and verify by contacting the agency or bank directly using a number you look up yourself.
Read at U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Arizona →House committee report calls for an 'all-of-ecosystem' approach to fighting scams, including elder fraud
A U.S. House Financial Services Committee report is calling for a coordinated national strategy against fraud and scams, arguing that stopping them requires cooperation across banks, technology platforms, telecommunications carriers, and law enforcement, not just the moment a payment happens. The report cites FTC data showing more than 3 million fraud reports and $15.9 billion in reported losses in 2025, and specifically flags elder exploitation among the scam types it wants better addressed alongside impostor schemes, phishing, and crypto fraud. It recommends stronger consumer education, deliberate friction to slow suspicious transactions, more cross-industry data sharing, and wider use of AI-powered fraud-detection tools, and it launched a new public resource site explaining common scam red flags in plain language. The American Bankers Association welcomed the report's call for a coordinated approach that brings platforms, carriers, and financial institutions into the effort together.
Read at JD Supra →Senate Aging Committee presses nine major AI companies for safeguards protecting older users
The Senate Special Committee on Aging sent letters to nine major AI companies asking what safeguards their AI chatbot 'companion' products have for older adults, people with disabilities, and people in crisis, including how the products are tested, how harms are tracked, and whether independent researchers can access data to study the effects on older users. Companies have until August 31, 2026 to respond. The letters follow a bipartisan committee hearing, held by the committee's Republican chairman together with its Democratic ranking member and another Democratic senator, examining how AI has been used in scams against seniors; at that hearing the committee released a new report citing the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center for almost $21 billion in cybercrime losses in 2025, with $893 million tied to AI-enabled scams. The report's recommendations include a centralized federal scam-reporting portal that would automatically route complaints to the right agency, expanded law enforcement training and cryptocurrency-tracing tools, and new protections against unauthorized AI-generated voice and image replicas. The committee framed it directly: protecting older Americans from AI-enabled fraud and expanding their access to helpful AI tools 'are not competing priorities; they are two sides of the same obligation.'
Read at McKnight's Senior Living →Expert: AI voice cloning is making grandparent and impersonation scams more convincing
At a fraud-prevention session, a consumer-protection expert explained how AI is raising the stakes on scams that already target seniors: fraudsters can pull audio from social media to clone a family member's voice for a fake emergency call, and use AI to alter faces and voices on video calls to look and sound legitimate. He said government agencies never initiate contact by phone, so any call claiming to be the IRS, Social Security, or the FBI is a scam, and that any request to pay through a cryptocurrency ATM is always a scammer. Other advice: legitimate tech companies do not send pop-up warnings with a phone number to call, so restart your computer instead of clicking a link or handing over remote access; use unique passwords and multi-factor authentication; and place a security freeze on your credit report. According to FTC data cited at the session, Americans reported losing a record $15.9 billion to fraud and scams in 2025, an all-ages figure that is separate from the FBI's own reporting on losses to adults 60 and older.
Read at HousingWire →Senate Aging Committee hears bankers' testimony on AI-enabled fraud targeting seniors
The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on July 29, 2026 on AI-generated fraud targeting older Americans. A witness from the American Bankers Association testified that artificial intelligence is amplifying fraud schemes rather than creating new ones, saying a criminal can now create a convincing fake voice, video, photo, text message, ad, or online persona with little skill or cost. He recommended that Congress create a National Office for Scam and Fraud Prevention to provide accountable national leadership, along with strengthening telecommunications safeguards, improving how fraud information is shared to help recover stolen funds, and modernizing identity and authentication systems. He also noted that banks already use AI, advanced analytics, employee training, and consumer education to help spot suspicious activity. The hearing is a reminder that as scams become more convincing, the same basic defense still works: slow down and verify independently before sending money.
Read at ABA Banking Journal →IV. Learn More: South Dakota Scam Prevention Guides
Explore South Dakota-specific guides on the most common scams targeting seniors in your state:
- Tech Support Scams in South Dakota — Learn to recognize fake pop-ups, phone calls, and remote access schemes.
- Investment Scams in South Dakota — Protect your retirement savings from fraudulent advisors and crypto scams.
- Romance Scams in South Dakota — Spot the warning signs of fake online relationships designed to steal money.
- Government Impersonation Scams in South Dakota — Know what real government agencies will never ask you to do.
- How to Report Scams in South Dakota — Step-by-step guide to reporting fraud and starting recovery.
For national-level data on each scam type, see our Investment, Tech Support, Romance, and Government Impersonation national guides.
See how South Dakota compares. Curious where South Dakota ranks in the national picture? Stolen Trust, our 2026 special study, ranks every state and territory using five years of FBI data and lays out one practical plan to fix elder fraud.