Two thirds of adults targeted by fraudsters
SCAMMERS have attempted to con an estimated 36 million adults this year, Citizens Advice fears.
The charity said more than twothirds (68 per cent) of people think they’ve been targeted by fraudsters.
And it warned that such is the sophistication of some scams, the tech-savvy young are much more likely to be victims.
While over-55s are most likely to be targeted, those aged 34 and under are nearly five times more likely to fall victim to a scam than their older counterparts, the charity found.
A poll by Opinium for Citizens Advice found younger adults were likely to be targeted by text or messaging service (61 per cent), while the phone was most common for those 55-plus (73 per cent).
More than half of scam contact was about fake deliveries or parcels, but in 41 per cent of cases someone was pretending to be from government and 12 per cent were offering a “get rich quick” investment.
Comparing the first five months of 2021 with the same period last year, there has been a 123 per cent increase in reports to the charity. In one case, an elderly man sent £240,000 to an account he thought belonged to his bank.
In another, a young woman lost £2,000 to a fake cryptocurrency company after receiving a message from a friend’s hacked social media account.
Paul Scully, Consumer Minister, said: “Criminals don’t care who they’re scamming.
“You might think you’re really tech-savvy, but we’re seeing scams so convincing they’d give a computer programmer pause for thought.”
He said it was best to report suspected scams to Citizens Advice and Action Fraud.