BUSINESS

Hint: It’s Not Older Adults

For years, the narrative surrounding financial fraud has often centered on older adults as the primary targets. However, recent data paints a different picture, as younger adults have become an outsized proportion of those affected. This is driven, in part, by the online habits of younger generations, where their familiarity with digital platforms makes them better targets of scams.

“Younger adults often believe tech savviness equals scam immunity,” Adewale Adeife, a senior cybersecurity consultant at EY, told Investopedia. “That overconfidence lowers their guard and makes them ideal targets for fast-money schemes,”

In this article, we highlight the types of scams that target different age groups and the psychological factors that make younger adults particularly susceptible.

Key Takeaways

• U.S. Federal Trade Commission data shows that young adults lose money to scams at nearly twice the rate of older adults, upending conventional fraud stereotypes.
• Younger adults primarily encounter online scams like fake shopping sites, cryptocurrency fraud, and job offer schemes via social media.

Age-Based Vulnerabilities: Myth vs. Data

For years, conventional wisdom suggested older adults were the primary victims of financial fraud. However, recent research emphasizes a recurring finding in recent years: younger adults are losing money to fraud at rates that outpace those who are older, even as the “success” rate for scam artists (those where money is gained) is rising for all age groups.

Still, scammers are working to take advantage of online habits, social behaviors, finances, and psychology, all of which are affected by age. FTC data shows that in 2024, 44% of people ages 20 to 29 who reported fraud had financial losses, compared with 24% among those aged 70 to 79. Similarly, a 2024 PYMTS Intelligence and Featurespace study found that 83% of young adults were deceived at least once by a suspicious link in a message, with 39% of millennials and 36% of Gen Z reporting household losses to scams compared with only 19% of Baby Boomers and older adults.

Fraudsters are taking money from people of all demographics, and no one is too “savvy” to avoid being among those who are next. In one year alone, from 2023 to 2024, according to FTC data, the percentage of frauds where money was turned over rose 40%.

Digital Natives, Digital Prey

While young people are often called “digital natives,” this familiarity with technology doesn’t translate to some sort of scam immunity. A March 2025 study looking at Instagram users between 16 and 29 found that frequent social media use often leads to “quick, instinctive decisions instead of systematically evaluating risks,” Jennifer Klütsch, one of its authors, told the Wall Street Journal.

The study also found that younger people are both more likely to trust a sender they recognize without scrutinizing suspicious links and to make impulsive decisions driven by fear of missing out on social experiences. This vulnerability aligns all too well with scammers’ tactics. Klütsch and her colleagues’ work, building on previous research, found that messages from followers (versus non-followers) and messages offering social opportunities (compared with faux job or relationship prospects) substantially increased young people’s susceptibility to phishing, where scammers impersonate legitimate senders in emails and texts.

“Social media is valued as a trusted and habitually-used environment, [and] its design makes it also inherently conducive to the effectiveness of [social engineering] attacks,” Klütsch and her colleagues concluded.

Types of Scams Targeting the Young

Young adults face particular scams tailored to their digital habits and life stage:

• Employment scams: “We’re seeing a rise in job offer scams, where fake recruiters ask for training fees,” Adeife said. Other common tactics include fake check schemes where victims deposit fraudulent checks and transfer money for “training” or “equipment.”
• Online purchase scams: Young bank customers are more than twice as likely to use credit cards to pay scammers as those over 40. The top products used include event tickets, salon services, jewelry, clothing, and eyewear.
• Cryptocurrency scams: Cryptocurrency fraud is among the most remunerative for scam artists, with a “success” rate of 60% when targeting the young.
• Social media scams: Social media platforms have become primary arenas for fraud targeting younger adults. “[Scammers] pose as influencers or friends, adding urgency with fake threats like ‘Your account will be closed,’” Adeife said. Since 69% of Gen Z claim to be “always connected” to the internet (compared with 32% of Baby Boomers), scammers have far more access to them than with other generations. In addition, on platforms like Instagram, messages from supposed followers can exploit users’ trust in the platform itself.

The Bottom Line

“Young adults are a susceptible user group, prone to be targeted by phishers who exploit their needs and expectations,” Klütsch and her colleagues wrote in the March 2025 study. This accessibility for scamsters operating worldwide means that younger adults are being defrauded at rates far higher than other generations. “Many people think scams mostly affect older adults,” the FTC has noted. “But reports to the FTC…tell a different story: anyone can be scammed.”