Young Adults Vulnerable to Phishing Scams Despite Being "Digital Natives"

Despite being termed “digital natives,” young adults are becoming more vulnerable to phishing scams, according to recent studies of Instagram users aged 16 to 29. Jennifer Klütsch, a Ph.D. candidate at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, presented frightening findings during an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

According to the study, 82.9% of young adults have been duped at least once by questionable links in communications. Klütsch said that, while this age group is extremely engaged on social media, their frequent use makes them easy candidates for fraud. The problem is that they make hasty, instinctual judgments rather than doing a thorough risk assessment.

Klütsch went on to say that young adults are more concerned with whether they identify the sender of a communication than with the link itself. This impulsiveness is further exacerbated by a fear of losing out on social events, making individuals more likely to click on links and provide personal information.

According to a recent Intelligence research, 21% of Gen Z customers have fallen victim to social media-based fraud. Scammers target younger audiences' preferred mediums, adapting their messaging to their worries, goals, and everyday activities. This customized strategy boosts the success rate of phishing attempts.

Collaborations with Featurespace have verified the general trend of social media scams, demonstrating that young consumers are more prone than older generations to fall victim to such fraudulent operations. Specifically, 39% of millennials and 36% of Gen Z respondents experienced financial losses as a result of scams, compared to only 19% of baby boomers and seniors.

Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed in December 2022 that fraud disproportionately affects young individuals. In its Data Spotlight, the FTC revealed that people aged 18 to 59 were 34% more likely than those aged 60 and up to report falling victim to scammers. Notably, younger persons were shown to be 86% more likely to lose money due to online shopping fraud, 330% more likely to report investment scams, and 448% more likely to fall victim to work scams.

The FTC's results contradict the popular belief that fraudsters mostly target elderly folks. Their survey found that “anyone can be scammed,” underlining young folks' rising vulnerability to internet fraud.