Retiring from your day job doesn’t mean retiring from monitoring your finances. While that task includes managing withdrawals and expenses, it also means keeping yourself (and your money) safe from identity theft.
Bad actors regularly target older adults for this type of activity. In 2025, cyber crime complaints by people aged 60 and older included reports of average losses of $38,500, according to the most recent internet crime report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retirees may have accumulated nest eggs and are now dealing with new online accounts for Social Security and Medicare. That makes them ripe for outreach from bad actors impersonating related government agencies, banks and more. This 15-minute checkup can keep hackers away from your finances and save you thousands.
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The 15-minute checkup
You don’t have to be a tech wizard or know how to use the latest artificial intelligence tools to keep your sensitive information safe. Following these four simple steps can help:
- Check your credit for unfamiliar activity: You can request a free copy of your credit report from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Contact one of these three bureaus and reach out to the FTC at IdentityTheft.gov if you detect any suspicious activity.
- Review your Social Security account: Visit ssa.gov/myaccount to log in to your Social Security account. You check that there are no unexpected changes tied to your benefits or direct deposits.
- Assess Medicare or insurer statements: Look for claims, services or equipment that you never received. Report any fraud on the Office of Inspector General’s hotline website or by calling either 1-800-MEDICARE or 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
- Tighten logins: Regularly update your passwords and make sure you are not using the same password for all of your accounts. Changing your password every few months reduces your risk in the event one of your passwords is leaked.
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What to do if you see suspicious activity
It’s best to tackle any suspicious activity immediately. What exactly you should do will depend on the type of account that was impacted, but here is some general guidance.
The simplest first step is to freeze the bank account, credit card, insurance policy or other financial account that has suspicious activity, if possible. Fraud alerts and credit freezes offer an extra layer of defense if you believe someone has been fraudulently opening new accounts on your behalf.
After freezing your account, the next step is to report identity theft through the government’s recovery hub, IdentityTheft.gov. This resource provides sample letters, recovery steps and other valuable information that can assist with filing a report. You can report Social Security scams to the Social Security Administration or OIG, and Medicare-related scams should be reported to Medicare.
You don’t have to navigate identity theft concerns alone. Contacting the necessary authorities and institutions can minimize the damage and act as an extra buffer between hackers and your sensitive information. Identity theft prevention is part of protecting your nest egg. It’s basic retirement upkeep that is similar to rebalancing a portfolio or reviewing bills. While you cannot eliminate every risk, you can get rid of many of the vulnerabilities that hackers exploit.
