Half of U.S. Adults Receive Daily Scam Attempts
Tired of scammers? You’re hardly alone. A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 58 percent of U.S. adults say they receive daily texts, calls, emails, or online messages or advertisements they suspect are scams.
Adults 60 or older are more likely than younger adults to get scamming attempts daily. (Editor’s note: My parents get upwards of 10 to 15 scam calls a day on their landline phone. It’s incredibly annoying.)
Most adults (92 percent) said they encounter scamming attempts at least monthly. The most common types of scams are related to package deliveries (58 percent have received a scam attempt on this theme); banks, loans, or credit cards (53 percent); job or employment opportunities (41 percent); tech support (38 percent); and outreach from a government official or agency (38 percent).
Older adults are more likely to see scams involving tech support, investment or business opportunities, charitable donations or disaster relief, or impersonations of a friend or relative.
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How Often Do You Receive Suspected Scam Attempts? |
||||
|
Age range |
Daily |
Weekly |
Monthly/Multiple times a year |
About once a year/less frequently/never |
|
Overall |
58 percent |
24 percent |
14 percent |
4 percent |
|
18-29 |
42 percent |
34 percent |
22 percent |
2 percent |
|
30-44 |
54 percent |
23 percent |
18 percent |
5 percent |
|
45-59 |
61 percent |
24 percent |
10 percent |
6 percent |
|
60+ |
71 percent |
17 percent |
9 percent |
3 percent |
Social media platforms are frequent scam vectors, especially through Facebook or Facebook Messenger (42 percent of adults have received a scam attempt through Facebook). People under 30 years old are more exposed to scams on Instagram, while older adults see more scams on Facebook.
Sadly, many of these scams are successful. Nearly a quarter of all adults surveyed said they have been scammed into providing personal information, and 17 percent have been personally scammed into giving away money. More than half of the public knows someone who has given away money in a scam.
Among scam victims, 58 percent reported it to their credit card company or bank, and 45 percent went to the online platform where they were contacted by the scammer. But only 28 percent reported it to local or state law enforcement, and 15 reported it to federal law enforcement.
In a previous Gallup and Stop Scams Alliance survey, many scam victims (75 percent) didn’t report it because they didn’t think it would make a difference in getting their money back. Others (58 percent) didn’t report the crimes because they weren’t sure where to report.
“The public views online scam prevention as a shared responsibility,” the AP-NORC poll results said. “Sixty-five percent say banks or credit card companies have a great deal or quite a lot of responsibility to block online scams. Social media companies (58 percent), the federal government (54 percent), and individuals themselves (57 percent) are also seen as being responsible for stopping online scams.”
