Buyer beware: Young people lose more money to online shopping scams in 2020

DETROIT (FOX 2) - While scammers often target older people online, the Better Business Bureau reported that younger people lost more to scammers than they normally do last year.

"For the first time, the 18- to 24-year-old age group actually reported the same amount of loss as those 65 and older," said Laura Blankenship, with the BBB.

The median loss for people in the 18-24 category was $150.

"So 18 to 24-year-olds, they usually are targeted for these scams but they typically don’t lose the same amount of money because they don’t typically make the same amount of money as seniors, but last year it was very interesting that they actually reported the same median loss," Blankenship said.

According to Blankenship, pet scams were big in 2020, with puppies that didn’t actually exist being advertised.

"Pet scams were up quite a bit in 2020 as well, and they took up a good amount of our online purchases as well," she said "A lot of that age group, that’s what they’re looking for, they’re looking for a companion because they can’t typically do the same things that they would normally be doing on our regular year."