Who is more susceptible to financial scams: Seniors or young adults?

 We all know that financial scams target seniors and that they are the most susceptible to the bait. Right? think again...

"Stop it with the ageism and delusions of invincibility. Young adults often don’t recognize the bad checks coming at them, or fake job offers, either" writes Ron Lieber for The New York Times.

"For years now, the Better Business Bureau’s survey research has shown that younger adults lose money to swindlers much more often than the older people you may think of as the stereotypical victims. The Federal Trade Commission reports similar figures, with 44 percent of people ages 20 to 29 losing money to fraud, more than double the 20 percent of people ages 70 to 79."

It's not the Nigerian prince or pfishing scam. "The targeted activities vary widely, from the online shopping that these victims may do nearly every day to their once-in-a-blue-moon handling of paper checks. Illegal schemes also target the student debt payments they must make and the jobs they seek to afford them."

"Pet and pet-supply scams have historically made up 25 percent of the online purchase scams reported to the Better Business Bureau."

"Given its size, con artists try to impersonate Amazon more often than any other company’s brand."

Employment Scams: never give your date of birth or Social Security number online. 

Fake check scams “Sorry, this is an accidental overpayment” or “Please use some of the money to perform mystery shopping of online money transfer services.”

 

Student Loan Scams: Once the moratorium on repayment ends, "expect a flood of thieves offering “free extended forbearance” or “Biden forgiveness plans” that do not exist. "Then they’d try to redirect victims’ payments or use their personal information for identity theft. Or both."