The very surprising group of Aussies who are most likely to be the victim of an online scam – and it’s not boomers

Millennials, rather than older baby boomers, are more likely to be victims of a financial scam, new data shows.

In the last financial year, 514,300 people fell victim to a scam in which a criminal tricked them into sending them money or providing personal information.

William Milne, the federal government’s head of crime and justice statistics, said more than a third of scam victims in Australia had been duped through online purchases – with more than 200,000 people duped.

“Buying or selling scams, which include things like false invoicing and scams related to online purchases, were the most common,” he said.

OhOnline shopping scams were far more common than a phishing text or email message, a request for an upfront payment, questionable financial advice, a fake love interest on a dating app, or a threat.

Contrary to popular perception that technology-deficient baby boomers are the primary victims of scams, millennials were actually more likely to be victims of a fraudulent financial transaction.

People aged 35-44 were duped more often, with 3.5% losing money to a scam in the 2022-23 financial year, new Bureau data shows Australian Statistics.

In comparison, only 2.5 percent of baby boomers, those aged 65 and older, have been victims of a scam.

They were even less likely to have been scammed than Generation X Australians, with 3% of people aged 45-54 falling victim to scams.

That compares to 2.7 percent for people aged 55 to 64, covering Generation X and baby boomers.

Younger Generation Z consumers, born since 1997, were among the least likely to be scammed, having grown up with the internet and smartphones, with only 1.8% of 25-34 year olds being scammed .

Children over 15 and young adults under 25 had the lowest rate of scam victims at 1.5 percent, perhaps because they had less money to pay for. make online purchases.

When it comes to personal financial victims, card fraud was the most common, affecting 1.8 million people, or 8.7 percent of the population.

This dwarfs the 2.5 percent of the population who have been victims of scams.

Among the Australian population, 1 percent have been scammed while shopping online, for phishing (0.6 percent), upfront payment (0.4 percent), financial advice (0.3 percent ), romance (0.1 percent) and threats or extortion (0.1 percent).

This was more common than the 1 percent of the population, or 199,100 people, who were victims of identity theft and the 2.1 percent, or 434,300, who were victims of identity theft. online identity.