Summer months mean vacations, outdoor concerts – and unfortunately, scams.
While scams happen year-round, during the summer there's an uptick in fraud around popular summer activities, Dan Cusick, a fraud and claim executive at Wells Fargo, told USA TODAY.
"Scammers and or bad actors as we often refer to them, really just look to exploit events. So whether it's the holiday season, whether it's summertime and concerts ... their whole MO isn't so much to get to that one person," explained Cusick. "It's to exploit an event and then those people come to that event and the scam is on."
"Fraud and scams are an equal opportunity sport" that will exploit anybody, said Cusick, but young adults aged 18 to 24 are more likely to become victims of summer frauds, particularly fake concert tickets.
In an October 2023 study, the BBB found that young consumers aged 18 to 24 reported a higher median loss in scams than other age groups for the first time in 2022.
Still, scams happen to any age group, he said. The FTC in February said consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, marking the first time that fraud losses have reached that benchmark. It was also a 14% increase over losses reported in 2022.
Here are some common summer scams, according to Cusick:
Beware of scams targeting senior citizenHere's tips to protect yourself or a loved one
Here are Cusick's tips to protect yourself from scams:
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include consumer news on Fridays, here.
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