Who is More Gullible? Millennials or Seniors?

It turns out that in the case of getting scammed, it’s often Millennials:

Gray-haired folk have long held “most scammed” status, but it may be time to pass on that unfortunate legacy. While the retirement-aged are targeted most often, increasing data shows that it’s millennials — our children and grandchildren ages 18 to 35 — who are most likely to lose money to fraudsters. Consider these recent findings:

Phone scams. About 1 in 10 American adults lost an estimated $9.5 billon to phone scams last year. Leading the pack were millennial men between ages 18 and 34, who were three times more likely to be victimized than the overall population, reports mobile communications company Truecaller, which offers a spam-blocking phone app. Its Harris-conducted survey of 2,000 adults finds that 33 percent of male mills report losing money to phone scammers; that compares to just 3 percent of males between ages 55 and 64 and 1 percent of men 65 and older. Meanwhile, some 11 percent of female millennials got duped, four times the rate of women 55 and older…

Everyday fraud. In its own research of more than 2,000 adults last year, the Better Business Bureau finds that some 30 percent of those between ages 25 and 34 lost money to scammers; it’s only single digits among those 55 and older.

The article gives several reasons that millennials are more likely to get scammed but this reason stood out:

They overshare. Tweets about breakfast. Selfies over lunch. Millennials love to share their lives online with who-knows-who, and that often includes details best kept private — names, birth dates, likes and dislikes, and other personal information that could be used for identity theft and scam-targeting sucker lists. Promise them a prize or other “tangible benefits,” and the majority of millennials willingly share their personal information with even unrecognized online askers. And guess which age group, says online security firm Norton, most likely willy-nilly shares their computer and cellphone passwords? No surprise (again): those between 18 and 34.

I am surprised how many younger people will often give out passwords or just get lax when it comes to their internet security. I was at the Apple store one day and the guy working at the “Genius” Bar told me that he just uses 1234 for his password on everything. I used to wonder why older people were so wary about people working in their home, getting too involved in the stock market, or even new technology that might be helpful (or not). But now I understand.