YORK, Pa. — Gen Z is three times more likely to fall for online scams than their grandparents, according to Google Cybersecurity experts.
They also say, in 2022, scammers made $210 million off of people under 20. That's up from $8 million in 2017. These scams are getting more sophisticated by the day.
Grace Hoyt, a Google Cybersecurity Expert, said "I really attribute it to these attackers getting more creative and kids spending more time online."
She said these attackers are going through email and text messages. Gen Z may be a little more trusting of those because they practically grew up with a phone in their hand. Hoyt said the best way to combat this is to go to the physical website themselves to see if what they are being told via text or email is legitimate.
The biggest red flags come when the message comes with a sense of urgency or a "too good to be true" type of deal. Always go to the actual company or bank website to check it out.
So what can can be done to stop the scams? Google said it's blocking 99.9% of these scams and phishing attempts everyday. Hoyt believes that's about 100 million blocked scams - per day!
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