When TV and newspapers devote lengthy and meticulous reports to the most common methods of avoiding online scams spread through malicious emails and messages and related links, many of those born in the new millennium cannot help but roll their eyes and think, “These old guys are getting fooled like chickens, it could never happen to me” (the thought would probably be peppered with colorful expressions, abbreviations and slang, but that's the concept).
A cliché, that of parents, uncles or older siblings dedicated to falling into the traps of the net or social networks, losing their pensions, salaries or all the bitcoins painstakingly accumulated over the years, which however does not seem to reflect the actual situation on the ground. In fact, according to what has been deepened by the digital bank Revolut and reported by SkyTg24, there are many in GenZ who cannot resist the lure of an extraordinary offer, a shamefully low price, a prize won in a contest they did not even participate in, an email sent by a woman they have never met but who presents herself as very generous.
@virginiafabbrini13 Le truffe online ci sono… 😓 #lavoroonline ♬ Last Hope (Slowed + Reverb) - Steve Ralph
The younger generation is evidently more exposed, this is true, for reasons of access to technology: having that wonderful smartphone in one's hand for 18 hours a day also exposes one to the risk of clicking one too many times without due attention, perhaps after being hooked on Instagram, TikTok or residually on FB. But by the same token, the assiduous and daily frequentation of social media should have made genzers and millenials more astute and less easy to fall prey to the first gonzo fisherman who throws the hook into the community. Compulsive use of online shopping and related courier deliveries also does not help neurons maintain the training needed to deal with scams. And so people end up clicking, replying and providing very sensitive data to communications that come from addresses like xwtrcsra@truftruf.ru, perhaps without having placed an order in the last 30 days.
An only seemingly trivial concept also comes out of Revolut's analysis: “Think before you act”. Before we move money or even accept it, before we buy into a story so absurd that it is actually absurd, better to call into services our instincts and all available neurons, so as to consider whether what we are doing will expose us to nefarious consequences and prolonged derision.
@hilary_smile Sono stata truffata! Fate attenzione vi prego! Pensate bene a dove acquistate! #truffa #denuncia ♬ Get You The Moon - Kina
Prevalent scams on social media in 2023 - again according to Revolut data - involved the promise of quick and undeserved enrichment, to be obtained with a significant financial investment. And the prospect of buying products and services that do not exist or that materialize like the classic wrapped brick, perhaps with beautiful packaging.
In this regard, although Revolut does not deal with it, another type of scam involves all those products, usually of Eastern origin, that cost little, but so little, that they mysteriously turn out to be unusable or have a shelf life that usually does not exceed a week. All of this obsessively advertised on the channels most frequented by genzers who, oblivious to the adage “think and then act” compulsively click by plundering borrowed credit cards and very effectively feeding the waste cycle.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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