ARLINGTON, Va.–It’s no secret the elderly are most likely to fall victim to a scam, right? Wrong, according to a new report from the Better Business Bureau’s Institute for Marketplace Trust.
Instead, the report found that Millennials are more likely to be scammed than the elderly and Baby Boomers.
According to the analysis, which is based on a survey of 2,021 adults, approximately 30% of those ages 25 to 34 said they had been the victim of a scam in the previous year, versus 10% of those 55 and older were.
“We’ve bought into the stereotypes about scam victims — they’re usually seen as vulnerable and elderly, or gullible and poorly educated,” said Emma Fletcher, product manager with the BBB Institute, in a statement released with the study. “These stereotypes are strongly held…and they are wrong.”
Fletcher, who along with Rubens Pessanha co-authored the analysis based on the study, “Cracking the Invulnerability Illusion: Stereotypes, Optimism Bias, and the Way Forward for Marketplace Scam Education, added, “We are all at risk, but younger and more educated individuals are actually the most likely to be scammed.”
According to the two authors, the reason Millennials are more likely to fall victim to a scam is that older people don’t suffer as much from what’s known as “optimism bias,” or the belief that other people are more vulnerable than we are.
Among the other findings:
- When survey respondents were asked to name the type of person most likely to be associated with being the victim of a scam, they replied someone who is “less educated, less intelligent, elderly, lower income, and less financially secure.”
- Among respondents younger than 35 surveyed, 80% said people older than 65 were more likely to be scam victims. Similarly, 71% of students said retired people were more likely to be scammed. But In reality, Pessanha said, “seniors may be the one group that does not suffer from optimism bias when it comes to scams. They’ve heard, loud and clear, that they are at risk.”
Pessanha believes older people may be more savvy about scams than younger ones because they’re less likely to be impulse buyers than younger consumers and less likely to make purchases online, where many scams happen.