Millennials more likely to report fraud than older generations, finds FTC
Millennials are 25% more likely to report losing money to fraud than people 40 and over, according to statistics from the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Consumer Sentinel reporting tool.
Millennials are even disrupting fraudsters
The Consumer Sentinel is investigative tool that provides members of the Consumer Sentinel Network – a group of local, state and federal law enforcement bodies – with access to millions of consumer complaints.
According to its statistics, the top five frauds for which millennials report losing money are online shopping frauds, business impostors, government impostors, fake check scams, and romance scams.
People over 40 report those same scams but the data suggests that millennials’ diligence may be down to the fact that they encounter fraud more often on a day-to-day basis.
Millennials are twice as likely as people over 40 to report losing money while shopping online, for example.
See more: UK banks stop £820m of fraud in H1 2019
The median individual amount millennials report losing to fraud is $400, much lower than what people over 40 report, which averages at $500.
According to the FTC, the likelihood of reporting a loss varies by how people are first contacted by the scammer. Phone calls are the top contact methods reported for people of all ages, but millennials lose money to them at lower rates than people over 40.
At the same time, millennials are 77% more likely than their older counterparts to say they lost money to a scam that started with an email.
