Elder fraud impacts millions of Americans, and the number of people affected continues to grow, accruing up to $3 billion in financial losses annually, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The organization R.O.S.E., which stands for Resources/Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, specializes in educating seniors on how to avoid financial scams. Brian Watson, Community Outreach Specialist at R.O.S.E., joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss how he educates the elderly. Watson was a Special Agent and Public Information Officer with the IRS for 28 years before he retired in 2023.
One of the scams on the rise in Arizona is sending people to ATMs that only service cryptocurrency accounts and request the individual to deposit money into an account due to a made-up scenario, according to the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. In September 2025, Arizona implemented a new crypto ATM law, making it harder for fraudsters to victimize victims. However, the law hasn’t fully curbed scammers from sending people to these ATMs.
Watson provides interactive presentations to 55+ communities, churches, independent living and senior centers, etc., and also has a newsletter and radio show.
“…there weren’t a lot of non-profits that specialized in getting people out of these situations,” Watson said.
According to Watson, one of the most worrying types of scams involves cryptocurrency ATMs, because the money is such a large amount.
“I’ve talked to people who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Watson discussed, “…putting money into a cryptocurrency ATM thinking they’re investing it or paying off fines, but in reality they’re just losing the money.”
Watson explained that criminals like to send people to make payments in methods that they’re not familiar with. Some methods used previously include pre-paid gift cards or peer-to-peer payments.
“The method of choice right now is these cryptocurrency ATMs. There are 600 of them here in Arizona,” Watson said, “…they will tell the victim exactly where that cryptocurrency ATM is.”
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