The study showed victims under 20 lost $210 million in 2022. Seniors remain by far the most victimized group, losing $3.1 billion that same year.

But the surge in young victims really speaks to the growing sophistication of scammers.

SocialCatfish outlined the top ways teens fall prey to fraudsters:

Social influencers: The scammers create fake accounts. Then they host a fake brand-sponsored contest and ask the “winner” to pay a fee or provide their bank account to win the prize.

Romance scams: Teach teens how to perform a reverse image search to confirm a person’s identity. Also talk to them about never sending an explicit photo to anyone, sextortion scams are on the rise.

Gaming dupes: Make sure that when making purchases in a popular game they don’t click on random links. Instead make in-app purchases directly from the game’s manufacturer.

Victims of a scam or attempted scam can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Report Fraud site, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and IdentityTheft.gov.