Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Thrifty Thinking: Surprise! Millennials are the Most Likely Scam Victims

When you hear the phrase “scam victim,” you likely picture an elderly person sending their money to a Nigerian prince or giving out their credit card details to someone over the phone, right? In general, the view of scams and those who get scammed is that they are less educated, overly trusting, lower income and elderly. According to research data published by the BBB Institute, however, this stereotype is inaccurate. Young adults are much more likely to lose money in a scam, the BBB has found, all while holding the view that they are unlikely targets. Keep reading to find out what makes millennials the most likely scam victims and how millennials — and the older people who care about them — can help them become less vulnerable to being hoodwinked.

Millennials suffer from optimism bias when it comes to scams

The BBB Institute calls it the “invulnerability illusion,” and what it basically means is that younger people suffer from an optimism bias that causes them to think they are less vulnerable than other people. Older people in general have constantly warned that they are potential targets for scammers, whereas millennials may think that their technological savvy and age keeps them from falling for scams. In fact, when the BBB Institute surveyed more than 2,000 adults to learn about their experiences with scams, 80% of those surveyed below the age of 35 said they believed people over the age of 65 were the most likely to be scammed. The data shows that this is far from the truth.
In the same survey conducted by the BBB Institute, 30% of people ages 25 to 34 admitted to losing money to a scam in the past year, compared with less than 10% of those 55 and older. What’s more, information collected by the BBB’s Scam Tracker site, which lets people report scams they’ve come across, 89% of those 65 or older reporting a scam recognized it before they lost any money, with just 11% reporting they lost money to the scam. On the flip side, 34% of those 18 to 24 were scammed out of their money — that’s three times the amount of millennials scammed compared to the elderly. These statistics prove millennials believe they are too smart to get scammed, and this invulnerability illusion is having an effect.

Read more at Next Advisor  including tips to stay safe.

No comments:

Post a Comment