(MARKETWATCH) — Forget the cliché of the vulnerable senior citizen falling victim to scammers — a larger share of young people reported that they lost money to fraud than older individuals did in 2017.
Among consumers ages 20 to 29, 40% of those who made fraud complaints to the Federal Trade Commission lost money, compared with just 18% of those who were ages 70 and older, according to an annual report from the federal agency released Thursday.
The report examined consumer complaints made to the FTC in 2017. Roughly 2.68 million consumers complained to the Federal Trade Commission about fraud in 2017, down from 2.98 million people the year prior. The largest share of complaints overall came from people between the ages of 60 and 69 — this group represented 19% of the reports the FTC received last year.
