Senior Scam Prevention & Fraud Resources in Louisiana
Louisiana seniors reported $36 million in elder fraud losses to the FBI in 2025, with 1,906 victims aged 60 and older. This page provides Louisiana-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: Louisiana’s Senior Population & Key Cities
As of 2024, Louisiana has an estimated population of approximately 4.6 million, with over 750,000 residents aged 65 and older, making up about 16.4% of the total population. Louisiana’s seniors are increasingly targeted by fraudsters through scams involving Medicare, imposter calls, sweepstakes, phishing emails, and tech support hoaxes.
Elder-targeted fraud is especially prevalent in the state’s largest cities, including:
- New Orleans (approx. 375,000 people)
- Baton Rouge (approx. 220,000 people)
- Shreveport (approx. 185,000 people)
Scammers continue to target Louisiana’s seniors, but the 2025 data shows a mixed picture. Total losses were $36 million. Two major categories fell: investment scams dropped 36% and government impersonation dropped 68%. Other categories rose sharply: tech support fraud doubled (+102%), romance scams surged 119%, and lottery/sweepstakes losses climbed 138%.
II. 2025 Victim Report: How Scammers Targeted Louisiana’s Seniors
In 2025, Louisiana had 1,906 victims aged 60+ who reported losses totaling $35,856,847 — up 39% in victims but down 4% in losses compared to 2024 (1,371 victims / $38M).
Loss by Crime Type
| Crime Type | 2025 Loss | 2024 Loss | Change |
| Investment | $13,353,766 | $20,842,485 | -36% |
| Tech Support | $8,291,885 | $4,106,472 | +102% |
| Romance | $4,608,623 | $2,107,809 | +119% |
| Lottery/Sweepstakes | $465,688 | $195,923 | +138% |
| Extortion | $136,510 | $66,491 | +105% |
| Government Impersonation | $363,341 | $1,122,021 | -68% |
Elder Fraud Loss Trajectory — Louisiana
5-Year Elder Fraud Trend — Louisiana (2021—2025)
| Year | Victims (60+) | Total Loss | YoY Change | Nat’l Rank |
| 2021 | 730 | $17,153,418 | — | #22 |
| 2022 | 721 | $18,374,982 | +7% | #34 |
| 2023 | 737 | $31,037,438 | +69% | #27 |
| 2024 | 1,371 | $37,512,993 | +21% | #28 |
| 2025 | 1,906 | $35,856,847 | -4% | #37 |
| 5-Year Total | 5,465 | $139,935,678 | +109% (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 Louisiana Seniors (2025 vs. 5-Year)
| Crime Type | 2025 Victims | 2025 Loss | 5-Year Total | Growth (2021—25) |
| Investment | 127 | $13,353,766 | $51,485,034 | +719% |
| Tech Support | 244 | $8,291,885 | $21,988,925 | +685% |
| Romance | 146 | $4,608,623 | $18,999,149 | -44% |
| BEC | 43 | $3,108,888 | $14,746,074 | +25% |
| Personal Data Breach | 129 | $1,477,287 | $5,543,337 | +287% |
| Lottery/Sweepstakes | 50 | $465,688 | $1,461,755 | +267% |
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: Louisiana’s elder fraud losses totaled $36 million in 2025, with 1,906 seniors victimized. Two major crime categories decreased: investment scams fell 36% (from $21 million to $13 million) and government impersonation dropped 68%. Louisiana was one of only a few states where investment fraud actually shrank. Meanwhile, tech support fraud doubled (+102%) to $8.3 million, romance scams surged 119% to $4.6 million, and lottery/sweepstakes losses climbed 138%. Statewide, that comes to roughly one senior victim for every 2,412 Louisiana residents.
National context: Louisiana ranks #46 in per-capita victim rate (41.46 per 100,000), one of the lowest in the country. The decline in investment fraud is nearly unique nationally — most states saw this category surge. The two simultaneous declines suggest either effective local enforcement, shifting scammer focus to other states, or reporting changes. However, the tech support and romance surges show new threats are filling the gap.
For the full national picture, including how Louisiana compares to every other state, visit our national hub page with interactive data and rankings.
III. Emergency & Official Contacts
Local Police Departments – Financial Crimes & Elder Protection
1. New Orleans Police Department – Economic Crimes Division
- Phone: (504) 821-2222 (non-emergency)
- Website: www.nola.gov
- Ask for assistance with financial exploitation or elder fraud.
2. Baton Rouge Police Department – Criminal Investigations
- Phone: (225) 389-2000 (non-emergency)
- Website: www.brla.gov
- Request help with fraud, ID theft, or scams affecting older residents.
3. Shreveport Police Department – Fraud Unit
- Phone: (318) 673-7300 (non-emergency)
- Website: www.shreveportla.gov
- Report suspected scams, financial abuse, or digital fraud.
FBI & Federal Scam Reporting
FBI New Orleans Field Office
- Phone: (504) 816-3000
- Website: www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/neworleans
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- Website: www.ic3.gov
- File a report for phishing, romance fraud, identity theft, or online scams.
Louisiana Attorney General – Elder Fraud & Consumer Protection
Office of the Louisiana Attorney General – Consumer Protection Section
- Consumer Hotline: (800) 351-4889
- Website: www.ag.state.la.us
- Provides resources, complaint forms, scam alerts, and elder fraud prevention tools.
Statewide Elder Services & Medicare Fraud Resources
Louisiana Adult Protective Services (APS)
- Report elder abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation:
Hotline: (833) 577-6532 - Website: ldh.la.gov
- Oversees protection of vulnerable adults through investigations and services.
Louisiana Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP)
- Phone: (877) 272-8720
- Website: goea.louisiana.gov
- Assists with identifying and reporting Medicare and health-related fraud.
Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs (GOEA)
- Info Line: (225) 342-7100
- Website: goea.louisiana.gov
- Coordinates senior services, legal aid, fraud education, and community outreach programs.
Don’t Stay Silent. Slow Down, Verify, Report.
- Louisiana seniors lose millions of dollars each year to scams, but your report can stop the next one.
- Share these verified contacts with family, caregivers, and community groups.
- Visit our Education Center for common scam examples, red flags, and reporting tips.
- If it sounds too good to be true, or too scary to ignore, take a breath, hang up, and call a trusted source.
Recent Louisiana scam news
Recent news coverage of scams affecting Louisiana seniors, updated from our alerts desk. Each item links to the original outlet; victims and defendants are kept anonymous.
Tips to help elders identify and avoid common financial scams
A cybersecurity expert explains why older adults are targeted online and how families can stay safe.
Read at KTAL News →Experts to lead holiday fraud panel as senior scams rise
Experts will hold a holiday fraud panel for older adults as scams targeting seniors climb during the season.
Read at The Advocate →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 →IV. Learn More: Louisiana Scam Prevention Guides
Explore Louisiana-specific guides on the most common scams targeting seniors in your state:
- Tech Support Scams in Louisiana — Learn to recognize fake pop-ups, phone calls, and remote access schemes.
- Investment Scams in Louisiana — Protect your retirement savings from fraudulent advisors and crypto scams.
- Romance Scams in Louisiana — Spot the warning signs of fake online relationships designed to steal money.
- Government Impersonation Scams in Louisiana — Know what real government agencies will never ask you to do.
- How to Report Scams in Louisiana — 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 Louisiana compares. Curious where Louisiana 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.