Identity Theft in the Younger Generation

Posted by: Gene M. | Jan 06,2008

A lot of good information was written on this blog this past week about identity theft.  One reason people might not think they’ll be the victim of identity theft is that they’re in the wrong demographic.  Perhaps they think that identity theft is the purview of older retirees.  You know the cliché: an older person alone at home who is far too trusting of telepredators and email scams.  

This is actually far from the truth: more younger people are victims of identity theft because younger people are more active.  The more you use your credit card on or offline, the greater the chance that you will be the victim of identity theft.  Younger people generally eat out more, buy more gadgets, more property, and so on, and they’re also more active online.  Add these things up and younger people are actually more susceptible to identity theft than elderly senior citizens who have gotten much of the press in regards to fraud.

Boomers are susceptible to fraud as well.  Take this paragraph from an article about identity theft: "McDonough said that while the typical victim of a financial fraud used to be a senior citizen, the BBB is seeing a lot of late-middle-age baby boomers getting scammed. 'They're just about to hit retirement and they're worried they haven't saved enough,' she said. 'Somebody comes along and offers them an investment opportunity with a big payoff, and they're suspending their normal common sense, and they end up losing the money they did have.'"

That’s definitely something to look out for if you’re a Boomer who hasn’t yet saved adequately for retirement.  As I’ve written here before, this is a very serious problem for people in our generation.  Estimates put the number at 25 million Boomers who don’t have adequate retirement savings.  Drastic times might call for drastic measures, which could result in your being taken by an online scam.  

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