A study by British bank Barclays suggests that the online shopping boom fueled by widespread lockdowns has expanded the opportunities for cyber fraudsters, the Financial Times reported.
According to Barclays, over the past three months, about 34% of respondents have encountered fraud when shopping online. At the same time, respondents consider people between the ages of 21 and 30 to be the least vulnerable to attackers, and those over 71 are the most vulnerable to this risk.
However, as it turned out, young people more often than other age groups became victims of criminals. As a rule, they came across scammers who sold non-existent things. The victim made a full prepayment of the goods, after which the seller disappeared.
According to the study, about 29% of young people in the UK have encountered this type of scam.
Kirill Podgorny, director of the ESET marketing department in Russia and the CIS, in an interview, noted that the gullibility of young people and the elderly lie in different planes.
“The older generation is more often deceived by telephone scammers or swindlers who personally come to the apartments of their victims. And since the younger generation spends most of their lives online, the hunt for them is on the Internet. For example, half of the buyers of our online store are people under the age of 35. At the same time, only 14% of online purchases are made by customers over 55 years old, ”said Podgorny.
According to the expert, it is easier to deceive young users for several more reasons.
“Firstly, young people willingly publish details about their preferences and hobbies on social networks, so it is easier for attackers to form a portrait of a potential victim.
Secondly, young people, due to their lack of life experience, continue to believe in miracles and fall for phishing links promising "90% discounts on luxury brands." Older people have already learned that if something looks incredibly attractive, then there is most likely deception behind the sign, ”the expert explained.
The cybercriminals' interest in young people may be due to the fact that young people are more likely to use various services, agreed Alexey Marchenko, head of the content filtering methods development department at Kaspersky Lab.
“According to our data, in addition to classic legends like offering fake payments from banks or other extremely generous monetary compensation, the main schemes used by cybercriminals are phishing for social networks and delivery, as well as fraud in the field of cryptocurrencies and tourism.
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