Q. What advice against fraud and scam may BBB provide to college kids?
A. As a parent, if you have a college student packing up for school this fall, now is a good time to talk about preventing fraud while they are away from home. The current college age generation, Generation Z, based on a recent survey and report release by BBB, gives us concern. Today, neither boomers nor the senior demographic, but millennials are the generation targeted for scam and fraud. The multi task, lack of focus, immediate results expectation generation is targeted for deception. Fraudsters have evolved with technology and are very sophisticated. The younger generations have a prevailing attitude and bias toward their being less likely the target or victim of fraud, but sadly are victims.
Jim Winsett of the BBB. The Better Business Bureau recommends steps to avoid these characteristics and protect themselves from identity theft and other fraud on campus.
According to Javelin Strategy and research, identity theft committed against people aged 18 to 24 took the longest to detect – 132 days on average – when compared to other age groups. The average cost of losses to this age group – $1,156 – was roughly five times more than the amount lost by other age groups. About 6 percent of identity theft reported to the federal trade commission last year involved people 19 or under – a total of 15,226 complaints. The number jumped to 19 percent for those ages 20 to 29, for a total of 48,697 complaints.
The BBB recommends that college-bound students to create awareness and take the following steps to fight identity theft on campus: