SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – In their 2021 ScamTracker Risk Report, the Better Business Bureau found teens and young adults are becoming scam victims at higher rates than older generations.
Smartphones are the sidekicks to almost every teen and young adult nowadays — and all the apps on the phones make 18 to 24 year old’s easy targets for scams.
“They communicate differently. Talking on the phone is not what they do. Texting, snapping, messaging on social platforms — that’s how they communicate. And scammers love that. They’re on all of those platforms. They’re on all of those networks,” Jessie Schmidt, VP for South Dakota Region of the BBB, said.
The BBB’s 2021 ScamTracker Risk Report shows that last year online purchase scams were the riskiest for all age groups. Next on the list for 18 to 24 year old’s were employment scams.
“If you have a young person that’s entering that workforce, I would just caution them about, you know, accepting a job where you haven’t had a face-to-face with anybody,” Schmidt said.
The third riskiest is investment scams.
Jessie Schmidt with the South Dakota Region of the BBB says parents should be talking with their children about how to stay safe online.
“If you don’t work to educate our young people that they need to be suspicious about just about every offering they see or hear that comes to them on these social platforms, we’re doing them a huge disservice by encouraging them to jump in,” Schmidt said.
Though more young people were falling victim to scams in 2021, Schmidt says people over 65 still had the highest monetary loss from scams.
