Millennials often fall for computer fraud scams

On fraudulent calls of supposed service employees falls a recent study of Microsoft just the younger generation of under-40s in.

Munich (dpa) – In the relatively new scam, the fraudsters pretend by mail or phone, for example, as employees of technology companies and try under the pretext of a supposedly present computer problem about credit card data or passwords to come.

Above all, the age group of millennials (between 24 and 37 years) is particularly affected in Germany , said Microsoft .

These are people who are actually very well versed in digital applications and self-confidently moving in the digital space, it says in a blog entry. Thus, a total of 52 percent of Internet users in Germany this year have been victims of at least attempted attempted fraud.

Of the victims, who also suffered financial damage, were 76 percent younger than 38 years old. The users in Germany have become gullible: 13 percent of those polled this year on the scam mesh – in a comparable study in 2016, there were still 7 percent.

Every month, Microsoft receives around 1000 complaints about fraud attempts – even as Microsoft employees, the criminals are always happy to turn out. Microsoftgenerally does not contact users by phone, the company said. For such calls, users should end the call as quickly as possible and never click on unwanted pop-up windows on the computer, Microsoft recommends . The company claims to be against an international and interdisciplinary team from 30 countries against such scams.

The numbers are part of an international study Microsoft has conducted among more than 16,000 adult Internet users in 16 countries.