How Fraudsters Are Persuading Young People to Sell Their Identity Data

‘Most won’t realize that what they’re doing is potentially criminal,’ an expert said.

An undated file photograph illustrating a cyber scam. Nongasimo/Shutterstock

Identity fraud has surged in recent years, with industrial-scale cyber scams being perpetrated against millions of individuals in the United States and other parts of the West.

Most of the data used to carry out the scams is stolen by hackers from banks and other institutions, but there is now an indication that some young people, unaware of the long-term risks, are willingly selling their data to cyber criminals.