NORFOLK, Va. - A new report from AARP finds 41 percent of Black adults have been targeted by a scam.
"What's even more troubling is that 19 percent have lost money, and of that, 60 percent report say they've been a repeat victim of lost money more than once due to scams," said Shani Hosten, the vice president of African American/Black Audience Strategy at AARP.
Some of the common scams the company saw in its survey include government imposter scams, lottery and work-from-home scams.
Hosten says there are two steps people can take that could make a difference. One of those is reducing the number of unknown calls coming in by using a robocall blocking service or signing up on the National Do Not Call Registry.
It's free and only takes a few minutes.
"And frankly, what we can also do is just not pick up the phone if you don't recognize the phone number and not give out your personal information at all," Hosten said.
The other step that can help: use strong passwords that are unique to each account.
AARP's survey found a lot of people are using the same passwords on multiple accounts.
If you or someone you know may be a victim of a scam, you can click here to find resources to help or call AARP's free helpline at 877-908-3360.
