Men more easily conned on the web
By
Guy Dixon
7 April 2008 07:47AM
Tags:
men | easily | conned | web
Online fraudsters might consider targeting their efforts exclusively at men following a report showing that males are a softer touch when it comes to online scams..
The study by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) revealed that men lost around $1.80 to every $1 lost by women in online fraud over 2007.
The IC3, which shares its database with regulators and law enforcement agencies to track down internet criminals, based its findings on more than 206,000 complaints received over the year.
The IC3 partly attributed male online fallibility to buying patterns." Historically men were more apt to purchase large-ticket items like electronics. That could explain a lot of it," said IC3 research manager and report author John Kane.
However, it would also seem that the attraction of money making opportunities is just too hard for men to resist.
"Men tend to fall victim to business investment schemes and some other schemes that have a higher dollar loss," said Kane.
The average loss caused by investment scams is now more than $3,800, and reports of such incidents are overwhelmingly submitted by men.
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