Almost half of 18-to-19-year-olds have been scammed online. Why might that be?
A US Federal Trade Commission report finds that one in four people who have recently lost money through fraud on the internet say they were first contacted through a social network. Given that this type of crime is often not reported, the FTC fears the number of scam victims is much higher.
Young people are particularly vulnerable: in the first six months of 2023, social networks were the method of contact in more than 38% of reports of money losses through fraud and scams suffered by people aged 20 to 29. For 18- to 19-year-olds, that figure was 47%.
The most frequently reported fraud in the first half of 2023 was online purchases marketed on social media, primarily through constant ads on Facebook (60% of cases) or Instagram (24%), which accounted for 44% of all reports of losses from social media fraud. In most cases, fraud simply consists of undelivered goods, with clothing and electronics topping the list. WhatsApp, with 13%, and Telegram with 9% complete the list, calculated on all reported cases and excluding those that were not able to identify a specific platform.
Other types of scams, such as attempts to refer contacts to websites or alleged investments in cryptocurrencies also make up a substantial part of this type of scam, 20%, while alleged…
