Are you up on all the latest financial scams? You might be surprised at how sophisticated and convincing scams have become, and how many people fall prey to scammers. 

Scenario 1: The phone rings at 7 p.m. The caller says he is from a collections agency, and you need to pay your outstanding debt now or you will be arrested. What should you do? 

Scenario 2: You receive a call saying your granddaughter was arrested for using her iPhone while driving. The caller pressures you to pay to keep her out of jail, and then you hear her voice on the line telling you to wire money. Should you do it? 

Scenario 3: You receive a text message from your credit union saying there has been a suspicious Zelle transfer to someone you don’t know. It says to click the link to secure your account. Should you click it? 

Scams are common, costly, and convincing. 

All three of these scenarios are scams. New technologies and scamming methods make it more difficult to recognize a financial scam, as recent statistics show. 

Americans lost more than $10 billion to financial scams last year, more money than ever before. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one in four people reported losing money to scams in 2023. The median loss was $500 per person.

Email was the most common form of scam, followed by phone calls and then text messages. Scammers target people of all ages, income levels, education levels, gender, and race. 

While people often think older adults are more susceptible to scams, that isn’t always the case. Generation Zers born between 1995 and 2012 are falling for online scams three times more often than baby boomers, a 2023 Deloitte report found. 

Younger adults who grew up with technology use it and trust it more than tech-suspicious boomers. Gen Zers also have more of their finances online. This makes it easy for con artists to access accounts and swindle money, a recent Time article shared. 

Older generations have not dodged scamming, though. Despite Gen X’s and Boomers’ careful use of technology, new AI technology is luring them into scams. 

So, who is “scam vulnerable”? 

“For most scams to work,” Psychology Today explains, “victims must participate in their own victimization, either directly (e.g., disclosing personal information, sending money) or indirectly (failing to report the scam). This means that in many cases, potential victims have the power to prevent being victimized.”

Financial scammers weave an intricate, panic-inducing story, build urgency, and isolate victims from trusted friends and family. If you engage, the scammers’ coercion is costly. The Cut’s financial advice columnist found this out when she put $50,000 in a shoebox and handed it to a stranger.