The amount of people under 20 falling victim to online scams rose 156% between 2017 and 2020, according to the State of Internet Scams 2021 report by Social Catfish.
I’ve been writing about tech, including everything from privacy and security to consumer electronics and startups, since 2011 for a variety of publications.
Technology proficiency doesn’t necessarily mean teenagers are better able to defend themselves against online scams, according to a new study(Opens in a new window) from Social Catfish.
In fact, the amount of people under 20 falling victim to those scams rose 156% between 2017 and 2020, the largest percentage growth rate among the six age groups the report examined.
Social Catfish said its State of Internet Scams 2021 report was informed by previous findings published by the FBI, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and the FTC as well as the results of its own survey of 722 members of the Social Catfish Seekers group on Facebook. The company said it also “interviewed cybersecurity experts and a detective” for the report.
It found that the number of victims of online scams under the age of 20 rose from 9,053 in 2017 to 23,186 in 2020. The amount of money lost by those victims also rose from roughly $8.3 million to nearly $71 million in that same time frame, although Social Catfish said those figures could be conservative because victims often under-report their losses.
While teen scam victims saw the biggest jump, people over 60 still make up the highest percentage of overall victims and lose the most money, with the number of victims and the amount of money lost in 2020 reaching 105,301 and $966 million, respectively.
The reasons why people fall for online scams vary. Teenagers appear to be more likely to share personal information that can later be used against them, Social Catfish said, while people over 60 can be easier to exploit “because they are very trusting and polite individuals.” The older generation is also more likely to have more money for potential scammers to steal.
Social Catfish’s findings highlight the difference between using technology more often—Statista found(Opens in a new window) that COVID-19 has pushed an increasing amount of children and teens’ screen time above four hours—and understanding the risks posed by digital threats. (Or digital literacy writ large.) Knowing how to use the latest tech isn’t enough; it’s also important to know how to use it safely.
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I’ve been writing about tech, including everything from privacy and security to consumer electronics and startups, since 2011 for a variety of publications.
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