Cyber scams targeting all ages | What the Tech?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — You may picture a typical cyber scam victim as someone who is older but that’s not completely true and there’s more to it.

Baby boomers are more likely to fall for financial scams and computer scams. Callers who say there’s something wrong with their computer and demand you give them remote access to fix it.

Instead, the scammer installs malware or ransomware or steals personal information.

Seniors are more likely to send scammers money using gift cards.

Boomers lose the most money, but they don’t get scammed as often as their kids.

People in their 20s and 30s are more than twice as likely to be swindled. Millennials are most likely to fall for shopping scams, employment scams, romance scams, and, maybe most surprising, scams where the caller pretends to be someone from the government.

Several 20-somethings we talked to fell hook-line-and-sinker for this elaborate scam where the caller says their social security number was used to rent a car that was later involved in a crime.

Millennials are more likely to give the scammer their social security number, address and full name. Teens and pre-teens are targeted using sextortion scams. Someone they meet online, on social media, or in video game communities, asks for nude photos and then threatens to share them with all of their friends unless they send money in the form of gift cards or through Venmo and Cash App.

While younger people are more susceptible to falling for a scam, seniors lose the most money. That’s probably because they have more money to lose.

The Better Business Bureau says millennials reported losing anywhere from $100-200 to a cyber scam on average. Meanwhile, seniors, on average, lose over $400 a scam.

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