A new analysis of consumer scam reports submitted to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) indicates certain demographic groups are more likely to lose money to scammers.
The findings come from researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California who used data collected through the BBB Scam Tracker consumer reporting platform between January 2017 and September 2020.
Their research found that women were much more likely than men to report an attempted scam and were twice as likely as men to report money loss; however, men who did lose money lost higher amounts than women.
In this analysis, age did not appear to have a significant effect on the rate of monetary loss, though older victims tended to pay more once victimized.
Also in the analysis, 30% of reported scams included a monetary loss, which is consistent with findings from the annual BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report.
