The Iowa City Police Department and the Iowa City Senior Center hosted a public scam awareness program explaining the new and inventive ways that scammers are attacking citizens, as reported scams and money lost from scams have increased over the last five years.
The public event, presented by two representatives from the Iowa City Police Department, was held on March 27 at the Iowa City Senior Center and focused on phone, social media, and artificial intelligence scams affecting the elderly.
Also in attendance were representatives from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the Johnson County Attorney, who each had booths with fliers on them.
Ann Thompson, victim services coordinator at the police department, said the purpose of the event was to teach people about potential red flags and to encourage reporting potential scams to law enforcement.
According to the Iowa Department of Justice, in 2025 the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division handled over 4,000 scams and complaints making 2025 the second consecutive year where there has been a rise in scams and complaints.
She said the Iowa City Police Department partners with the senior center because senior citizens are a more vulnerable community when it comes to scams, and that the goal of her presentation is to show them, and other residents, the warning signs, as well as create awareness and engagement with modern scamming tactics.
“These types of things are very helpful because it’s in person, and they can ask questions and give real-life scenarios,” Thompson said. “That’s why I bring along cases that we’ve actually followed up with and to say this is very real.”
Thompson said residents have received scam messages, including gift card scams, fake crime scams, or scams that inform the user of a crime they didn’t commit and tell them to interact with a specific site to absolve them of the crime by giving up their information, bank scams, and lottery scams.
Thompson recalled one story where an elderly couple fell victim to a scammer who told them they would receive around $1 million and other gifts. However, they received none of the things they were promised and were forced to move in with their son because they’d lost so much money from sending consistent payments to the scammer with the hope that he would one day pay them back.
On March 5, Attorney General Brenna Bird released the top complaints and scams her office handled in 2025. Imposter scams were the second most reported category, which include fake job offers, online shopping scams, and scammers posing as public officials.
Thompson said that for victims, these lies from scammers can seem very real and can cause the victims to spiral financially.
She also showed specific texts to watch out for, such as those saying the user has an overdue parking ticket or that a package is going to be delivered. She said government-funded institutions, such as parking departments or postal offices, will never send you texts.
Thompson said if someone ever receives a scam text, they should never reply to it, even if it is to tell the person on the other end to stop. If someone replies to the text, it increases the chance that numbers like it will keep spamming that number. Instead, she said to always delete the text, block the number, and report it as spam.
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Thompson ended by saying to always avoid calls, texts, or social media messages that try to create a sense of urgency to reply, send information, or give money.
Victim Services Coordinator intern and fourth-year University of Iowa social work student, Josie Patton said with the improvements to AI, scammers have begun using it for voice impersonations of relatives to for money over the phone.
However, she said that oftentimes it does not sound very similar to the individual, and to always check the voice and the caller identification to avoid being scammed.
Patton prepared her part of the presentation by working firsthand with victims of fraud and researching the latest trends in fraud online. She also helped put together the brochures given out at the event to help people better understand what artificial intelligence can be used for.
She said that while she doesn’t personally know any students at the university who have been victim to an artificial intelligence scam, she said she’s heard about cases at the police department, and that even students need to be careful, since the majority are often online, and that is the most common way that scammers reach people.
One of the attendees and an Iowa City resident, Vicki Dunbar, said scammers have been an issue for decades, but with technological advancements, it’s tougher now, more so than ever, to distinguish between what is real and what is a scam.
“I think it just makes us really skeptical,” Dunbar said.
To combat the scams, Dunbar has tried to be very cautious when it comes to what she clicks on or replies to. However, some of her peers are much more trusting and have a higher chance of falling victim to online scammers.
“It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you,” Dunbar said. “That’s how I live.”
Dunbar said she sees the usefulness of AI, but is still worried about its capabilities.
“AI is frightening. I understand when people say it’s good.” Dunbar said. “I just think it’s very scary.”
While the police department has seen a rise in AI scams, Thompson said the main reason for the increase is because of technology and how savvy scammers have become. She said that some scammers will read through obituaries to look for widows to scam, or they will target young people by sending them fake job opportunities.
According to Iowa Insurance Division, in 2024, Iowans lost a total of $52 million to fraud and the number of senior financial exploitation cases saw an uptick of 102 percent in 2025.
Thompson said she plans to host another scam awareness event near the end of October or early November before the holiday season because that is one of the times when scammers ramp up their online outreach.
According to a report by Merck Employees Federal Credit Union, a federally chartered credit union, survey data found 62 percent of American consumers will buy something instantly if it’s a holiday, and 35 percent admitted they take more risks during the holidays.
The report also said that fraud attempts rose by 28 percent during winter travel in 2024 and that Thanksgiving was the busiest day for online scam attempts in 2024.
“There’s no instance that’s too small to report,” Thompson said. “If any suspicious activity occurs, whether you get a phone call, a text that you respond to, or if there’s repeated phone calls.”
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