The free FBI presentation on scams targeting seniors was supposed to take place at noon at the Geauga Family YMCA in suburban Cleveland on Presidents’ Day, before pickleball court time.

Such workshops are helpful in fighting the nation’s epidemic of financial fraud. In 2023, the FBI fielded more than 880,000 reports - roughly 2,400 a day - related to internet crimes that resulted in $12.5 billion in losses.

Who better to warn people than FBI agents on the front lines trying to track down the criminals increasingly using sophisticated schemes that are hard to detect?

While young and old are scammed, the losses by seniors have been financially tragic. In a recent seven-part series, I wrote about a Maryland woman who lost all her retirement savings - close to $600,000 - in a government-imposter scam. A dozen other victims connected to the same India-based scammer had $2.9 million stolen in total.

Seniors generally make the most lucrative targets: Many have amassed great wealth through workplace retirement plans, traditional IRAs, home equity and other investments. Fidelity Investments reported that in the third quarter of last year, the number of 401(k) millionaires hit an all-time high of 544,000, up 9.5 percent from the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the number of adults 60 and older who have been scammed out of $100,000 or more has more than tripled since 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2024 report on elder fraud.

However, two weeks before the Geauga Family Y’s Feb. 17 presentation, the FBI special agent who was supposed to conduct the presentation emailed a staff member, saying, “Outreach had been discontinued in compliance with an Executive Order that [was] recently signed.”

“Unfortunately, that is all the information I have at this time,” the agent wrote in the email, which was shared with me by Richard Batyko, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the YMCA of Greater Cleveland.

A staffer posted a sign flagging the cancellation in bold letters. Underneath, it noted that the federal government “no longer allows the FBI to do community outreach.” A photo of the notice went viral, amassing thousands of comments on social media platforms. The responses were biting, illustrating people’s frustration with President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders, which have caused confusion and chaos.

Was this cancellation related to Executive Order 14151, which mandates the elimination of “policies, programs, preferences, and activities” related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI? Are seminars on scams now mixed up with Trump’s mission to rid the government of any efforts to help historically underserved or vulnerable communities?

The FBI, for its part, tried to explain what happened.

“While the presentation … was canceled, it was not due to an executive order but rather was a miscommunication to the organization,” wrote Susan Licate, a public affairs officer for the Cleveland FBI, in an email to me.

I was confused and shared with her what the FBI agent told the YMCA.

What was the agent told exactly? “Simply, a misunderstanding of an executive order led to the miscommunication,” was Licate’s response.

It’s not lost on me or others that a scam seminar was canceled at the same time that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has gained access to or is attempting to review sensitive personal data held by the Office of Personnel Management, the Treasury Department, the Education Department, the Social Security Administration and now the IRS.

We don’t know the full extent of what DOGE agents are doing with the information. Are they downloading it? Are they using personal computers that are vulnerable to highly skilled international hackers?

Every piece of information that is hacked or leaked, intentionally or accidentally, puts more people at risk of being scammed.

If government workers are afraid of running afoul of Trump’s DEI executive order, where does that leave potential victims? Will they be able to conduct workshops in minority or diverse communities?

Scams are at record numbers. Dollar losses are financially catastrophic for many victims. We are under siege from criminals with enough of our personal information to make their fraudulent schemes believable.

Every day, someone is scammed in America. Every workshop can make a difference.

I worked closely with the FBI on my fraud series, and those communications were critical in helping me understand how scams work. Many consumers will be harmed if the FBI’s community work is shut down, delayed, or questioned because of Trump’s executive orders. And seniors, who often have the most money to lose, will be robbed of a secure retirement.

Michelle Singletary is a Washington Post columnist.