Feb 24, 2024 18:00:00

Why are young people of Gen Z more likely to fall victim to online scams than older people?

Gen Z , born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, has had access to the internet since they were old enough to understand, and they grew up with smartphones. Intuitively, it would seem that younger people who are more internet-savvy would be less likely to fall victim to online scams, but research has shown that they are actually more likely to fall victim to online scams than older Boomers .

Gen Z vs. boomers: young adults are victims of online scams more often - Vox
https://www.vox.com/technology/23882304/gen-z-vs-boomers-scams-hacks/

According to

a study by consulting firm Deloitte Insights, Gen Z Americans are three times more likely to be victims of phishing, identity theft, romance scams, and cyberbullying (16%) compared to 5% for Boomers. They are also twice as likely as Boomers to have their social media accounts hacked.

Furthermore, online research service Social Catfish reported in its annual report summarizing the state of internet fraud that total losses from online fraud involving victims under the age of 20 have soared from $8.2 million in 2017 to $210 million in 2022.

There are three main theories regarding the question, 'Why is Gen Z, who are supposed to be more internet-savvy than any other generation, vulnerable to online scams and hacking?'

-Generation Z uses technology more than any other generation, and is therefore more likely to fall victim to scams via technology.
- Younger generations who grew up with the internet may become so familiar with their devices that they prioritize convenience over safety.
Cybersecurity education in schools is not relevant to the real-life experiences young people have online.

'I think Gen Z is really thinking about cybersecurity because they have to deal with these threats every day,' said Kayla Gur, a computer science student at Stanford University.

Guru, 21, founded Bits N' Bytes Cybersecurity Education as a teenager and is a cybersecurity education organization. When Guru teaches young people about email safety and social engineering, they often understand it immediately.

'They often say, 'Oh, I remember something similar happening to me,' or 'I've seen these spammers on Instagram a lot,'' Guru said.

The types of online scams targeting Gen Z are no different from those targeting other age groups, but because young people access technology more frequently and on more devices than middle-aged and older people, they are more likely to encounter fraudulent emails and suspicious online shops.

'Younger people are increasingly shopping online, but the internet is overflowing with fraudulent sites designed to target younger generations,' said Taneasha Gordon, head of Deloitte Insights' Data & Digital Trust practice. 'The same goes for phishing emails, some of which are riddled with typos, while others are highly sophisticated.'

Social media, where safety is often a secondary concern, is also a concern. If platforms popular with young people like Instagram required users to log in again with two-factor authentication every time they opened the app, social media would likely become safer.

Older generations are less resistant to these hassles, but for a generation that grew up using social media as an important form of self-expression, strict security may simply be an annoyance.

Guru says that future security education will likely be more easily embraced by Gen Z if it approaches safety as part of how to be active online, rather than positioning it as a concept at odds with convenience.

Additionally, understanding the systems that create incentives to commit fraud is crucial to preparing Gen Z for a scam-filled online world.

'I think the final synapse we need to connect is why these scams happen, who is behind them, and what can we do about it,' Guru said.