Millennials Got Scammed for Money More Than Their Grandparents Did in 2017

The Internet has given today's youth countless more ways to make money. It also appears to have made them more vulnerable to losing it, too.

According to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission, Americans aged 20 to 29 reported loss of money from fraud more than any other age group, particularly the 70 to 79 and 80 and over age groups. Twentysomethings made up 40% of fraud loss reports last year compared to 18% for the two older groups.

There is a slight caveat, however: older Americans had a much higher median loss of money than their younger counterparts. The median loss for 70 to 79-year-olds was $621, the FTC said, and $1,092 — the highest median of all — for Americans aged 80 and up.

Americans in their twenties however had the third-lowest median loss of all the age groups at $400 even.

Overall, the 20 to 29 age bracket reported more than 71,000 incidents of fraud over the past year, totaling nearly $61 million in losses.

Credit card fraud was the top instance of identity theft in 2017, the FTC noted, with an increase of 20% from the previous year for users with existing accounts.