How to avoid financial scams

(InvestigateTV) — Bankrate found 68% of Americans have experienced a financial scam in their lifetimes, with more than half saying it’s happened to them in the last year.

The results of their first survey on financial scams surprised Sarah Foster, an analyst for Bankrate.

“The economy is stressing many Americans out. The proliferation of new technologies is making the playground change dramatically from where people find financial scams,” Foster shared. “But I think a lot of this creates more vulnerability and raises the risk that many Americans might not even realize that they’re falling for a scam until it’s too late.”

She said it was eye-opening to learn that 23% of Americans itted to sending money to a scammer or paying for a phony service—and noted it’s not just older generations getting duped.

“We did see that older generations are most likely to report that they’ve experienced it at some point but it’s those younger generations who are more likely to lose money,” Foster reported. “They’re also falling for more advanced scams because those GenZers and Millennials are the ones most likely to report that they had sent money to a scammer.”

Foster said many Americans may let their guard down, believing they can easily spot a scam—but today’s cons are becoming more sophisticated and much harder to detect.

She urged people to:

• Not click links in emails or texts they don’t recognize
• Confirm all links before clicking
• Create strong s
• Have a different for every

Those that have fallen victim to or suspect a scam should report it to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Report Fraud tip line.

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