A new report from Better Business Bureau looks at who is most vulnerable to scams. The BBB Scam Tracker Annual Risk Index analyzed 32,000 reports from 2016.
BBB's Emily Valla says men were at a higher risk than women in seven of the top 10 scam categories.
"We found consumers aged 18 to 24 are also the most likely to lose money to a scam. The report found younger consumers have a lower median loss than people in their top earning years, partly because the types of scams aimed at older consumers tend to have higher median losses," Valla said.
Valla says while seniors tend to lose more money than millennials when they are scammed, they fall for scams less often. But the biggest takeaway is, no one is immune from the risk posed by scams.
Based on the BBB Risk Index, the riskiest top five scams overall are:
1. Home improvement scams
2. Fake checks and money orders
3. Employment scams
4. Online purchase scams
5. Advance fee loan scams
The BBB Risk Index measures risk along three dimensions: Exposure, how likely you are to be exposed to the con; Susceptibility, if you are exposed, how likely you are to lose money; and Monetary loss, if you do lose money, how much is it likely to be?
For more information visit www.bbb.org.
