According to USA Today, fraudsters are leveraging artificial intelligence to identify vulnerable individuals from obituaries, creating convincing scam narratives. In one instance, a widow lost $7,000 after scammers claimed to have helped her deceased husband with tax evasion and demanded payment to "preserve her inheritance." The FBI reported that Americans aged 60 and above lost $7.7 billion to internet and cyber-enabled crimes in 2025, a 59% increase from 2024, with an average loss of $38,500 per case.