The FTC announces a Consumer Protection and Older Adults Roundtable focused on scam tactics that exploit trust, including romance scams. The event spotlights resources and practical prevention guidance to help people recognize and respond.

The FTC’s event page for a Consumer Protection and Older Adults Roundtable spotlights how scammers manipulate trust to steal money—especially from older adults who may be targeted with highly personalized social-engineering. While the page is not a court case or a single new criminal filing, it is framed as timely consumer protection guidance for ongoing threat patterns. The roundtable emphasizes that many modern scams are designed around credibility rather than brute force. The FTC references themes such as romance scams and related trust-based fraud, where scammers build rapport and pressure victims into sending money or sharing sensitive information. The event format is intended to share perspectives, including firsthand accounts, and to discuss strategies for recognizing red flags and responding safely when contact is suspicious. For readers, the value of this announcement is actionable awareness: it positions scam prevention as an approach that includes skepticism toward unsolicited “too good to be true” narratives, verification of claims, and using FTC tools and guidance to reduce harm. It also reinforces that scammers often exploit emotional triggers—affection, urgency, fear, or a sense of obligation—to overcome rational defenses. Overall, the FTC’s session underscores that trusted relationships are often the entry point, and that education plus appropriate support resources can blunt the impact of these schemes.