Elderly Eastern PA Residents Scammed Out of Millions

State officials say over $76 million was lost to scams in 2025 alone, with many more cases going unreported.

Published on Mar. 2, 2026

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A Pennsylvania state hearing revealed that older residents in the state were scammed out of $76 million in 2025, with many more cases likely going unreported due to victims feeling embarrassed. Scammers are increasingly exploiting social media platforms to target and defraud elderly victims, prompting calls for stronger regulations and accountability for tech companies.

Why it matters

The staggering financial and emotional toll of these scams on elderly Pennsylvanians highlights the urgent need to protect vulnerable seniors from predatory criminal activity, especially as scamming tactics become more sophisticated with the use of AI-powered tools. Lawmakers are under pressure to enact new safeguards and hold social media platforms accountable for enabling these crimes to proliferate.

The details

State Rep. Brian Munroe hosted a hearing that revealed over $76 million was lost to scams by older Pennsylvania residents in 2025 alone. Victims are targeted through cloned or fake social media accounts, friend requests, direct messages, targeted ads, and community pages. Scammers are deliberately exploiting the structure of social media to identify targets, build trust, and steal money on a massive scale. Testifiers at the hearing, including scam victims Kate Kleinert and Bill Moyer, called for stronger default privacy settings, vetting of advertisers, and easier reporting tools on social media platforms.

  • In 2004, federal data showed $12.5 billion in losses from internet scams targeting older Americans, a 25% increase from the prior year.
  • In 2025, over 4,000 scam-related complaints were filed in Pennsylvania, with residents losing more than $76 million.
  • The House Majority Policy Committee hearing was held last week in the Pennsylvania Capitol complex.

The players

Brian Munroe

A Pennsylvania state representative who hosted the hearing on scams targeting elderly residents.

Kate Kleinert

A widow from Glenolden who lost over $40,000 to a scammer posing as a love interest on Facebook.

Bill Moyer

A resident of Allentown who had people show up at his home multiple times looking to pick up a puppy they had paid for on Facebook, only to find it was a scam.

Mike Crossey

The president of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans, who testified at the hearing.

Yosef Getachew

The senior policy counsel at Reset.Tech, who also testified at the hearing.

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What they’re saying

“This is a deeply personal issue to me as we discovered a few years ago that my own mother had been defrauded out of close to $40,000 over the span of two years. The amount of pain and financial damage these scammers are causing older adults and their families is unconscionable.”

— Brian Munroe, State Representative (Patch.com)

“Facebook and Google have let this stuff go on for years and years despite all their power to track what people engage with. It almost seems like they want to make it easy for people like me to be targeted for scams.”

— Kate Kleinert, Scam Victim (Patch.com)

“I stood in my own yard and witnessed the aftermath of what happens when a billion-dollar platform ignores what is happening and fails to protect trusted users. Those people who showed up at my house — hopeful, then heartbroken — deserved better.”

— Bill Moyer, Scam Victim (Patch.com)

What’s next

Lawmakers are expected to consider new legislation that would require social media companies to implement stronger default privacy settings, thoroughly vet all advertisers, and empower users to easily report fraud.

The takeaway

This crisis highlights the urgent need to protect vulnerable elderly residents from sophisticated scams that exploit social media platforms. Implementing robust safeguards and holding tech companies accountable is crucial to preventing further financial and emotional harm to seniors in Pennsylvania and across the country.