Ahead of the holiday season, a California-based online dating investigation service is warning a specific consumer group to be on high alert for online scams: teenagers.
Money lost by teenagers grew by 1125 percent over the last five years compared to 390 percent for seniors, according to Social Catfish’s new State of Internet Scams 2022. Teens lost $8.2 million in 2017 compared to $101.4 million in 2021.
“This speaks to the growing sophistication of scammers and the overconfidence of tech-savvy teens online,” Social Catfish warns. But the company also found the data to be “surprising” and “alarming.”
The trend was surprising, it said, because “young people are considered to be more tech-savvy than older generations.” It was “alarming,” it said, “because 54 percent of U.S. households polled by Social Catfish do not monitor their children’s activities online, leaving them vulnerable to Internet risks.”…