New IRS Scams Survey Shows Millennials Most Likely to Fall Victim

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., April 25, 2017 — First Orion, provider of data and phone call transparency solutions, today announced the results of a new survey that shows Millennials are more likely than any other generation to give away personal information over the phone.

Consumers will receive over 9 billion phone calls from known scammers this year. To drill in deeper, First Orion surveyed over 1,000 United States consumers and found close to 40 percent of those surveyed have been contacted by someone impersonating the IRS.

Over 85 percent of respondents received a telemarketing call recently and another 75 percent received a call they believed to be a scam.

According to the survey, IRS impersonations are the fraud du jour with 27 percent scam calls reported followed by cruise/vacation scams (25 percent) and bank/credit card scams (16 percent).

Surprisingly, Millennials received fewer scam calls (73 percent) than Gen X (83 percent) or Baby Boomers (84 percent). However, Millennials were much more likely to give away personal information over the phone compared to any other generation. Millennials were 6x more likely to give away their credit card information (2.4 percent) and almost twice as likely (1.6 percent) to give away their social security number to a scammer over the phone.

“Scammers are getting increasingly more aggressive – particularly around tax time,” said Jonathan Sasse, CMO of First Orion. “Last year IRS scam calls went up 3x in the two months following tax day and we can expect more of the same this year.”

Other interesting survey facts include:

• Roughly 70 percent received a scam call within the past month
• Of respondents who had received a scam call, 12 percent had received 21 or more in the last six months, compared to only 3 percent who received that many in 2015
• Over 7 percent of respondents are likely to give their personal information over the phone once a caller has verified the last four digits of their social security number
• Almost 17 percent of Millennials are likely to give away personal information over the phone once a caller has verified the last four digits of their social security number whereas only 3.2 percent of Generation X and 2 percent of Baby Boomers
• Only 35 percent of Millennials think they are currently susceptible to identity theft compared to 50 percent of Gen X and 54 percent of Baby Boomers
• Almost half of those surveyed believe it is their cell phone carrier’s responsibility to block scam and fraudulent calls or texts from coming to their phone
• Nearly three-fourths of respondents said they would be more inclined to use a cell phone carrier that automatically blocked telemarketing and scam calls

In addition to providing PrivacyStar applications for Android and iOS users, First Orion offers FONES for carriers and service providers to deliver the highest level of confidence and flexibility in protecting subscribers from scams and other unwanted calls. FONES enables carriers to easily and seamlessly deploy settings to protect all customers from identified malicious callers, such as known scammers that use robocalling.

About First Orion
First Orion provides data and phone call transparency solutions across multiple platforms, world-class data solutions, in-network call control and its PrivacyStar powered application solutions. First Orion Network Enterprise Solutions (FONES) currently provides call control, call blocking, call transparency and call management solutions to millions of mobile handsets. With branded and white-labeled applications as well as in-network solutions, First Orion assists mobile carriers in protecting mobile subscribers from unwanted or unknown calls, including Scammers, robocalls and Telemarketers. First Orion is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas with offices in Seattle, Dallas and London. For regular updates, please visit www.FirstOrion.com.

* First Orion surveyed 1,000 mobile phone users in the United States*

Media Contact:
Jackie Eicholz
First Orion
831.401.3175
media@firstorion.com