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Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

wired.com

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Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#11

Post by roenxi »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Europeans have less money than Americans. Even if there are no differences in law or practice scammers are still going to make more money off the wealthier people.

I suppose in some sense we could jot that down as more regulations leading to less scamming.

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#12

Post by mhog_hn »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Wealth sitting inside pension funds?

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#13

Post by ggm »

Not that there aren't massive downsides, but I do wonder where the spend side of this $1T goes. If it's shifted out of the USA then its being spent somewhere else.

I've never seen a decent write up of how the crooks invest the money, where they accept losses (muling?) and how they re-invest.

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#14

Post by pseudo0 »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Language proficiency seems like a significant factor. India and Nigeria have the second and third largest number of English speakers by absolute population, I don't think it's a coincidence that both countries are also notorious for their scammers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English...

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#15

Post by consp »

mhog_hn wrote: post #12
matsemann wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Wealth sitting inside pension funds?

Looking at the amounts still lost and reported that is not the problem. There is plenty to go around directly available.

My best guess is English proficiency. While most people here speak it, they will never talk to a "bank" employee in English. Which is probably why the Microsoft scam does work as people expect some non native language there.

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#17

Post by dachris »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Europe somehow is often a bit lagging behind the US - in good and in bad - the obesity pandemic is also just really starting to show here as well.

Scammers upped their game here also in the last few years and especially months.

No week in the local news without a love/crypto/elderly scam going into the 10s to 100 thousands.

Especially in the last few months, in my social circle, scammers really increased in density and quality - fake email accounts, AI calls, real people "you opened a crypto account with us" and "it's your niece Mary" calls.

The fragmentation of Europe might really help here - no one in their right mind will pick up on a call from another state anymore (or some people, even an unknown phone numbers are off limits, for that matter).

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#18

Post by wongarsu »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

All three of those plus more, but language barrier might be the biggest reason. Most Europeans speak English, but most scams are only plausible in your native language or the national language of your country. Europe is a patchwork of different languages. English has a much bigger "market" of victims for international scammers, many of them might already know some English before their career

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#19

Post by Symbiote »

roenxi wrote: post #11
matsemann wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

Europeans have less money than Americans. Even if there are no differences in law or practice scammers are still going to make more money off the wealthier people. I suppose in some sense we could jot that down as more regulations leading to less scamming.

This Global Anti-Scam Alliance website [1] says Americans, Danes and Swiss have the highest average scam amount, at $3520, $3067 and $2980.

But it also says Pakistan lost 4.2% of GDP to scams, vs 0.2% for Italy, Netherlands and France.

It looks like I'd need to register to see more details statistics.

[1] https://www.gasa.org/post/global-state-of-scams-report-2024-...

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