Gen Z and Millennials fall for scams greater than another age group

The idea that tech-savvy youngsters are less likely to fall victim to scams online is a misconception, new figures suggest. 

Over the last 12 months, Gen Z and Millennials accounted for 65 per cent of scams reported, data from money app Revolut reveals – with a scam expert putting it down to the fact they do more of their banking online. 

Some 38 per cent of scams reports in the last year were made by Gen Z, while Millennials accounted for 27 per cent of scam reports made to Revolut.

That is almost double the number of scams reported by older generations. The number of fraud cases reported by Gen-X and Boomers combined amounted to 35 per cent or all reports.

Two in three (65%) of scam reports on Revolut were made by Gen Z and Milennials, nearly double that of Gen X and Boomers (35%) 

Scammers are increasingly targeting younger people according to Revolut, despite a widely held belief that older generations are more vulnerable to scams.

While Revolut has a large Gen Z and Milennial customer base, the research was done by taking a sample of the same size across each generation, so as to not skew the results.

Although younger people were targeted more frequently by scammers, older generations lost bigger, even potentially life-changing, sums of money.

Gen-X (44-59 year olds) made up 20 per cent of cases but lost of over £10,000 on average per case. While Boomers (60-78 year olds) made up 15 per cent of cases and lost just over £38,000.

By comparison, Gen-Z and Millennials respectively lost £951 and £2,000 on average.

Jenny Radcliffe, a scam and security expert, told This is Money that younger people could be more vulnerable to scams as they have more of their financial information on their phone and use more financial apps. 

Fraudsters have also been using AI to rapidly churn out fake tickets to sought after music concerts and football matches, which many young people are desperately seeking tickets to. 

Jenny Radcliffe is a scam expert: ‘No one thinks it’ll happen to them. But the truth is, no one is un-scammable.’

Radcliffe said: ‘You can do everything in an app these days. People can conduct a lot of their financial life on apps as long they are using good, trusted apps with established security protocols.’

The common denominator across all age groups is that most of the fraud originated from social media. 

Radcliffe said: ‘From the data, so much of these scams come from social media – and market places where people buy stuff online. It could be approaches from fake sellers or pop up ads that are not legitimate.’

Radcliffe continues: ‘No one thinks it’ll happen to them. But the truth is, no one is un-scammable and sadly, it’s so much more common than people realise.

‘Many scammers are talented social engineers who know exactly what levers to pull and when. The fact is that most people think they’re not important, or rich enough to be targeted, or think they’ll spot the signs when they do.

‘But when scammers raise emotions, our rational brains might not function how we thought they would. Everyone is vulnerable, and should be on high alert for the signs that things may not be as they seem.’

As a result of the findings, Revolut is issuing a warning to customers that no one is unscammable no matter how tech savvy they are.

It has launched ‘Wealth Protection’ as part of Revolut Secure, a security feature which helps to give customers more control over how their money is protected.

Woody Malouf, head of financial crime at Revolut, said: The data highlights how many individuals have fallen victim regardless of age and comfort with tech and so it’s important no one is complacent.

‘Before making any transactions, no matter how safe they seem, take your time to think about what’s being asked for and why. Never be rushed into sending money unless you are absolutely sure.

If you have any doubts, stop, think and put the phone down. Your payment provider will never rush you into making transactions and Revolut will never phone you without first confirming via our secure in-app chat.’