The 21st century fraudster hardly even needs to speak with a victim before scamming them out of money. All they need is a phone or a computer. And a willing member of Generation Y who will click at the first sign of “free downloadable ring tones.”
That’s according to ratings agency Equifax, which released a recent study showing that millennials made up half of Canada’s fraud victims last year.
As a collection agency with offices in Edmonton, Calgary and the GTA we are watching with keen interest the unfolding of events with respect to these phenomenon and their impact (or lack thereof) on Canadian credit markets.
“Millennials rely heavily on technology for most of their day-to-day activities, which exposes them to more risk,” Equifax Canada chief privacy officer John Russo said in a news release.
“Whether it’s online banking at home or tapping into a Wi-Fi hotspot via a mobile device, millennials must recognize that they are now the biggest target for fraudsters.”
He said members of Generation Y can be “caught with text or email,” with headings such as “opportunity to work from home for $1,000 a day or free downloadable ring tones.”
“The younger generation just automatically clicks,” Russo said, adding that in-app purchases also present a risk.
“They are playing something and it says ‘buy now’ and it’s a fraudulent site looking for information to get credit,” he said.
Equifax’s data relied on a survey (click here) that spoke to 1,539 Canadians between the ages of 18 and 65 years old. It had a 2.5-per-cent margin of error, 19 times out of 20.
The ratings agency offered a series of tips to keep people from being targeted by fraudsters.
It recommended that they not overshare on social media, because “tech-savvy thieves can quickly gather what you share on social networks (your home or email address; children’s names; birth date and so on) to use for scams, phishing and account theft.”
It also warned potential victims to avoid phishing by never giving out personal information over the phone, over the Internet or by mail, “unless you have initiated the contact.”
Equifax’s findings were somewhat consistent with a 2014 U.S. Federal Trade Commission study which found that people between the ages of 20 and 29 years old were most likely to report identify theft, representing a fifth of complainants across all age demographics.