Fraudsters may target young adults to exploit clean credit record

QUINCY — If you have a college student who just started classes, now’s a good time to talk about avoiding fraud while they’re on campus.

One might be tempted to assume that scammers mostly go after older adults, but BBB’s 2023 Scam Tracker℠ Risk Report shows this isn’t necessarily the case. Young people are also at risk.

Young adults ages 18-24 showed similar levels of susceptibility to scams and fraud as other age groups in reports to BBB, and they reported the highest median dollar loss of all age groups in 2023 and 2022.

Fraudsters may target young adults because they are often less experienced with credit and finances and are navigating financial life events like loans, scholarships or budgeting for the first time. They often want to exploit a young person’s clean credit record.

Identity theft can affect students as much or more than their parents. Consumers reported nearly 200,000 cases of identity fraud impacting people ages 18-29 to the FTC in 2023. The FTC also found that people under the age of 30 lost money to fraud more often than older people last year.

Prevention is the best defense. While students are focusing on learning in their college courses this year, BBB recommends they also spend some time learning good habits for monitoring their finances and spotting the signs of fraud.

Tips for students to fight identity theft and fraud:

• Send sensitive mail to a permanent address. School mailboxes are not always secure. Have important documents sent to a parent’s home or a post office box.
• Lock up important docs. Store documents like your Social Security card, passport and bank statements somewhere safe. Shred any paper documents that have sensitive financial information before you throw them away.
• Keep your cards safe. Don’t lend your credit or debit card to anyone, not even a friend. Keep your cards out of sight and beware of “shoulder surfers” when you’re entering your PIN.
• Protect your devices. Make sure your phone, laptop or tablet has up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware software. Keep up with updates to your operating system or browser software to help protect your devices from new scam tactics. Use strong passwords for online accounts and don’t share them with anyone.
• Check out companies with BBB when shopping online. Consumers tell BBB that online shopping scams are one of the most common ways they lose money or personal information. When you’re shopping online, search the company or website at BBB.org to make sure it’s legitimate. Look for secure websites with a padlock icon and “https://” in the URL.
• Check accounts for suspicious activity. The sooner you identify any potential fraud, the more likely you’ll be able to recover your money or personal information – so check your financial accounts frequently.
• Keep up with your credit. Check your credit report for suspicious activity or mistakes. You can do this once a year for free at annualcreditreport.com.

Think you’ve been scammed? BBB can help. If you’re a college student out on your own, it can be overwhelming to know what to do in the wake of a scam. Younger people reported higher percentages to BBB of feeling shame, embarrassment, loss of confidence and guilt after realizing they’d been scammed. If you don’t know where to start, BBB’s Scam Survival Toolkit can walk you through a personalized recovery plan.

Don O’Brien is the regional director for the Quincy Better Business Bureau. Contact him at dobrien@quincybbb.org or 217-209-3972.