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You may think you’re pretty savvy online. But every time you open a social media app, you risk getting scammed.
A January report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that about one-quarter of fraud cases where consumer money was lost last year were initiated on social media. That’s $770 million lost to social media fraud in a single year.
The FTC went so far in its report to declare that social media was more profitable for scammers last year than any other method they used to trick people. And it’s a trend that’s rising at an alarming rate: In 2017, consumers only filed about 5,000 reports of fraud originating on social media. In 2021, they filed 95,000.
Instagram and Facebook were the most commonly reported platforms where contact with a scammer began, with WhatsApp and Telegram users also seeing a fair share of scammers.
And scam victims may not be from the demographic you’d expect. The FTC reported that fraud initiated on social media increased for all age groups, but people aged 18 to 39 were more than twice as likely as older adults to report losing money to such a scam.
You might expect older people to be more susceptible to scams. But many younger people are more comfortable sharing details about themselves online—like their location, occupation, interests and…
