Forty-one percent of adults ages 50+ years have had money stolen due to fraud, according to a recent AARP report summarized by fraud writer Jessica McMaster. The figures are based on a survey of 1,696 US adults designed to assess their understanding and awareness of various types of scams.

The report found that most of those surveyed (59%) were significantly worried about these scams, and becoming a victim tops the list of fears for many (30% overall). Among adults ages 50+, 63% rated their level of worry between 6 and 10 on a scale of 0 to 10.

On the positive side, most respondents (87%) knew that fraud can happen to anyone. Most also understood that scammers use sophisticated emotional tactics and often operate within large international rings. Most respondents (85%) reported using a passcode, password, facial recognition or fingerprint to unlock their smartphones, tablets and computers. The majority (82%), representing an estimated 218 million adults, correctly identified that being asked to buy gift cards to handle an urgent financial matter is a common scam tactic.

Despite this awareness, 21% of those surveyed answer phone calls from people they don’t know at least half the time, and 10% reply to unknown texts at the same rate.

The report contains advice to help people protect themselves from scammers and additional materials from AARP's Fraud Resource Center.

To read the full article with survey findings, click here

To download AARP's full report, "The Fraud Crisi in America: How adult consumers fee, what they know and their exposure to risk, click here