Kelvin Collins: Certain demographic groups more vulnerable to scams Kelvin Collins A new analysis of consumer scam reports submitted to the Better Business Bureau indicates certain demographic groups are more likely to lose money to scammers. The findings come from researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California who used data collected through the BBB Scam Tracker consumer reporting platform between January 2017 and September 2020. They analyzed over 167,000 reported scams, with particular attention to scams reported between March and September 2020, and their report gives a broader perspective than previous analyses about how scams impact minority communities. Women were much more likely than men to report an attempted scam and were twice as likely as men to report money loss; however, men who did lose money lost higher amounts than women. In this analysis, age did not appear to have a significant effect on the rate of monetary loss, though older victims tended to pay more once victimized.