(InvestigateTV) — The amount of money lost to scammers by people ages 20 and younger grew nearly 2,500% in the last five years, according to a study by Social Catfish, a company that verifies online identities using reverse search technology.
The study showed victims under 20 lost $210 million in 2022. Seniors remain by far the most victimized group, losing $3.1 billion that same year.
But the surge in young victims really speaks to the growing sophistication of scammers.
SocialCatfish outlined the top ways teens fall prey to fraudsters:
Social influencers: The scammers create fake accounts. Then they host a fake brand-sponsored contest and ask the “winner” to pay a fee or provide their bank account to win the prize.
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Romance scams: Teach teens how to perform a reverse image search to confirm a person’s identity. Also talk to them about never sending an explicit photo to anyone, sextortion scams are on the rise.
Gaming dupes: Make sure that when making purchases in a popular game they don’t click on random links. Instead make in-app purchases directly from the game’s manufacturer.
Victims of a scam or attempted scam can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Report Fraud site, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and IdentityTheft.gov.
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