This 66-year-old retired hair salon owner built a $14K crypto portfolio — after getting scammed out of $18K. Here’s her advice for the crypto-curious

But in at least one respect, Switzer is anything but the typical retiree: She’s an avid cryptocurrency investor.

This isn’t somebody who has just put a few hundred dollars into Bitcoin and hoped for the best: Switzer is obsessed with crypto, in a manner one usually associates with young men in their 20s and 30s who work in finance or tech and follow Elon Musk on X.

She knows about paying “gas fees” and has an account on Discord. In May, she made the three-hour trip to Toronto to attend an international crypto conference. Earlier this year, in January, she flew to Miami to be at Crypto Gathering 2025.

“I was like everybody’s grandma,” she said. “There’s these sockless young guys with skinny pants … and there’s very few women.”

She built a $14,000 portfolio in less than a year, holding a broad range of virtual currencies including Ethereum, Solana, Ondo, Sui and Polygon.

But it hasn’t been easy. In fact, some of her most elementary lessons on buying crypto, like how to set up two-factor authentication and hot wallets, came from an unlikely source: scammers.

Early on in her journey, she was victimized in 2024 by four separate crypto scams that cost her $18,000 in total. But that didn’t deter her.

Switzer’s story, though unique, helps explain why people of all ages and financial backgrounds have been drawn to the world of crypto for reasons that go beyond the simple pursuit of bottom-line returns. And her experience raises important questions about the lack of education for older investors in a world increasingly pervaded by digital money and related scams.

A social media crypto education

Although Switzer’s crypto holdings make up a small portion of her overall portfolio, which mainly consists of real estate, she often checks her accounts twice a day and has an approach many would find thorough and clear-eyed.

“I’m very cautious; meme coins hold no value for me,” she said. “I'm not interested in one hour. I'm not interested in just today.”

She researches the use-case of coins before buying and looks at performance over a three- to six-month range. And she says she only buys when a price drops (she has alerts set).

Every day she tunes in to live shows on social media where other investors discuss the market. One of her favorites is The Rise Up Morning Show, which airs Monday to Thursday and is hosted by three men sitting at their computers at home.

“If I'm making my coffee or if I'm doing my dishes or I am scrubbing a floor, or I'm just, you know, sitting on the couch at night, I'll check to see who's live that I know I'm gonna learn something through,” she said.

She has come a long way since last year, when she was first exposed to the technology on TikTok and began taking investing courses, on the education platform Real Vision, that she found to be “advanced” and “university level.”

‘I’m stubborn’: Weathering four crypto scams

Unfortunately, she soon found herself in the crosshairs of predatory scammers.

“First two were investment ones … which is you hire an investor and you send them money through your TFSA or your RSPs,” she said.

The scammers showed her fake performance statistics of her investment. “And in order to get it out you have to put more in, you know. Gas fees!” she recalled.

“The next scam was a QFS scam … quantum financial whatever. … And again, rug pull,” she said. “And then the next one was a fictitious airdrop.”

The scammers used some sophisticated tactics, at one point employing AI to create a fake video message from an influencer Switzer trusted. “He” even said her name.

But what would have pushed most average people to swear off the space drove Switzer to keep going.

“I get mad and just started listening and learning and doing it myself,” she said. “I’m stubborn. ‘Cause I’m going to make it back.”

'They were at my beck and call': Learning the ropes from scammers

“It's sort of funny because the ones that gave me the most help, of course, and were the most patient, were the scammers,” said Switzer about her early learning period.

Once she realized she was being taken for a ride, she set out to extract as much crypto knowledge as possible — to get her “pound of flesh,” as she called it — from the scammers, who, because they were hoping to maximize the amount of money they could get out of her, were exceedingly generous with their time and expertise.

“They were at my beck and call. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I'd send them a question any hour, any day. I just bombarded them with questions.”

Switzer’s scamming experience, if not her response to it, is distressingly common. Last year, people over the age of 60 filed 8,043 complaints of cryptocurrency investment fraud, according to the FBI. Losses totaled $1.6 billion, and no other age group came close. [1]

“Criminals introduce the topic of cryptocurrency and claim to have expertise, or an affiliation with experts, who can help potential investors achieve financial success,” said the FBI in a 2023 public service announcement. “Criminals then convince victims to use fraudulent websites or apps, controlled by the criminals, to invest in cryptocurrency. Criminals coach victims through the investment process, show them fake profits, and encourage victims to invest more.”

Although financial advisors may caution against any involvement with it, we know some seniors are interested in putting hard-earned money into these assets. And as they struggle to understand it, scammers are getting to them before the industry.

Studies show that most crypto owners tend to be below the age of 35 and male. Education resources designed for seniors, who are also arguably the most vulnerable to scams, are scarce. [2]

CryptoLiteracy.org, an industry initiative, said its 2024 survey revealed “persistent gaps” in knowledge that “the industry must address to ensure equitable access and safe adoption." [3]

By now, cryptocurrencies may have found their way into most retirement accounts through broad index funds that hold public companies like Coinbase and Microstrategy, but the assets are still complex and intimidating to most people.

Switzer said she understands, from firsthand experience, the barriers that potential older crypto investors face: “They only know what they’ve been told, and whatever they’ve been told doesn’t make any sense. They don’t see a place to learn.”

Seeking connection, community and education

At the Toronto conference in May, after the day’s sessions were over, Switzer went bowling with the group of young, male investors she had met online.

“I was very impressed with Jo when I met her,” said Daniel, 47, one of her crypto crew who uses the handle @cavemanfantassy on TikTok. “She’s always been somebody who’s very vocal, a very positive person in the community. She’s one of those go-getters, and I love those types of people.”

It’s clear, given Switzer’s brush with scammers and what happened afterward, that the crypto world is providing her something far beyond a mere investment opportunity.

Learning about developments in technology and feeling like part of a community seem to get her more excited than the potential monetary returns. She said it would be hard to find five people in her town who know anything about crypto, but the internet has brought her people from across the world to connect with over it.

She also likes that crypto is disconnected from governments and financial giants, which she doesn’t trust. She says she avoids stocks because they’re “all manipulated.”

Evan Mann, the 34-year-old co-host of The Rise Up Morning Show, and a co-founder of crypto education company Rise Up Media, said his oldest listener is 83 and there are many in their 60s and 70s.