Curt Springstead remembers the day in 2014 when he went to his mailbox and found about 25 letters congratulating him on opening new bank accounts — only he wasn’t the one who did it. Someone had stolen his identity and used it to open numerous accounts.
Springstead spent the next three years battling banks for basic information every time another account appeared in his name. The 73-year-old retired IT professional and AARP New Jersey volunteer who lives in Wanaque in Passaic County counts himself lucky that he didn’t lose any of his own money, but more than a decade later, he still worries about what else might happen.
Now he channels that experience into prevention. As a member of AARP New Jersey’s Speakers Bureau, Springstead gives community presentations about identity theft and fraud, sharing his own story and that of a close relative who lost thousands of dollars to scammers.
“There’s no doubt that it gives me credibility as a presenter,” he says. “And it may keep a few people more attentive while I talk.”
The Speakers Bureau is one of several ways AARP New Jersey works to combat the growing problem of fraud crimes, especially among older adults.
Losses from fraud are rising sharply nationwide, and older adults are bearing much of the cost. Nationwide, adults age 60 and over reported fraud losses in 2024 of $4.89 billion, according to the FBI; adults ages 50 to 59 reported fraud losses of $2.5 billion in the same year. In New Jersey, the FBI reports, adults older than 60 lost $133.4 to fraud in 2024, about a 52 percent increase over the $87.5 million reported losses in 2021. The true cost is far higher, officials say, because most scams are never reported.
“This is the amount of money that is leaving our economy in a year, moving out of retirement accounts and other sorts of accounts and into drug trafficking and human trafficking and all kinds of bad stuff,” says Kathy Stokes, senior director of fraud prevention programs for AARP.
PRIORITIZING PREVENTION
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