Google’s Abhishek Roy on why teens need a new approach to scam prevention

Despite heightened levels of awareness around online scams and their many forms, more young people are falling victim than ever before. The FBI’s annual Internet Crime Report found that Americans lost more than $16 billion to online fraud in 2024, a 33% jump from the year before, which itself was already up 22% from 2022. It’s a problem growing exponentially each year as fraudsters refine their tactics and exploit new technologies.

And although teens and young adults are often thought of as the most digitally savvy, research from the US Federal Trade Commission shows they are particularly vulnerable to scams on social media, reporting the highest losses relative to their income. That contradiction — being more aware yet still at greater risk — is something Abhishek Roy, who leads scam prevention research at Google, has studied closely.

“We saw this frustrating paradox emerge: awareness about scams was quite high, yet victimization rates were skyrocketing globally,” he told Ailís Daly, Head of Trust & Safety for EMEA at WebPurify, an IntouchCX company.

For platforms, this paradox doesn’t just impact the individuals who fall victim. Each incident ripples outward, driving up support volumes, eroding trust, and creating significant customer experience (CX) challenges that are costly and difficult to repair.

Why teens are especially vulnerable

Teens are digital natives, spending more time online than any other age group. That means their “surface area” of exposure to scams is inherently larger. But exposure alone doesn’t tell the full story. Psychological vulnerabilities play a big role. Fear of missing out (FOMO), social validation, peer pressure, and youthful optimism all make young people easier targets for fraud. Add in overconfidence about their own digital literacy, and you have the perfect storm.

“Overconfidence in digital literacy can be a double-edged sword,” Abishek says. “It makes teens less likely to scrutinize what’s happening in front of them.”
Ailís adds her own reflection: “I think back to my younger self — fearless, optimistic, definitely overconfident. That mindset is exactly what scammers exploit today.”

For platforms, this overconfidence and exposure translate into real-world consequences: higher rates of fraud reports, rising customer service demands, and reputational risks.

Bridging the awareness–action gap

Despite the widespread presence of traditional awareness campaigns, their effectiveness is often undermined by the need for users to recall critical information when they are under duress. The sophisticated psychological manipulation employed by scammers creates an ’emotional hot state,’ impeding rational action and thereby restricting the practical efficacy of these campaigns in cultivating online safety.

Traditional awareness campaigns are well-meaning but too often they are ineffective. Ad campaigns or in-app messages may provide information, but they don’t stick when users are under stress. As Abishek explains, “Simply giving people more information is often insufficient because when you are actually under attack, the rational part of the brain gets hijacked.”

This is what researchers and practitioners increasingly describe as the awareness–action gap. On paper, teens may know the right safety tips: don’t click suspicious links, don’t share personal details, check sender authenticity. But in practice, those lessons can vanish in the high‑pressure context of a scam.

When a message is urgent, emotional, or framed as an exciting opportunity, the brain’s “slow thinking” system can get bypassed, and victims may act before recalling any of the preventative advice they have learned previously.

And the consequences extend beyond the individual. For platforms, every missed moment of resilience translates into real CX costs. Support teams deal with a surge of panicked customers after scams succeed, often fielding angry calls from parents whose teens were targeted. Brands also bear the reputational fallout when users associate a platform with unsafe experiences, even if the scam originated elsewhere. “Scammers don’t just exploit individuals, they erode trust in the entire environment around them,” Ailís says.

In order to adequately bridge this awareness–action gap, platforms must develop interventions that prepare their users to react in the moment, not just recall information after the fact. That’s where interactive, resilience‑building approaches like Google’s Be Scam Ready come in.

From reading warnings to building resilience

Abhishek believes the solution lies in shifting from passive awareness to active resilience. He likens it to the difference between reading a fire safety manual and actively participating in a fire drill. Both matter, but only one actually builds muscle memory.

This insight from behavioral science research underpins Be Scam Ready (formerly ShieldUp), Google’s new interactive training game that functions like a flight simulator for scams. Users navigate realistic scenarios, from fake job offers to suspicious messages, and learn to recognize manipulation techniques like false urgency or impersonation. By practicing in a safe environment, they then build instincts that carry over into real life.

“We wanted to move people from passive awareness to active resilience,” Abhishek says. For platforms, this shift goes beyond just protecting users. It also forms the basis of a stronger Consumer Experience strategy. Think about it: more resilient users are less likely to fall victim, meaning fewer crisis moments, fewer escalations, and stronger trust in your platform itself.

Healthy skepticism, not cynicism

But there’s a balance to strike. In early pilots of the game, researchers noticed that users sometimes became overly skeptical, even distrusting legitimate opportunities. Ailís related to this challenge, recalling times she had ignored genuine communications because she was primed to be suspicious. “Over-vigilance can be costly too,” she says.

Abhishek agrees: “Our challenge was to build healthy skepticism without creating undue cynicism.” To address this, Be Scam Ready includes both real and fraudulent scenarios, helping users calibrate their judgment. For platforms, that balance matters. If users start doubting even genuine communications, like delivery updates or account alerts, it erodes trust and creates fresh CX headaches.

Actionable advice for parents and teens

Parents and teens alike often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of online safety advice available today, in the form of school programs, safety tips and public awareness campaigns. Research shows that many teens tune out entirely, believing either that they’re too smart to be fooled or that scams only happen to those who are unfamiliar with technology. “That overconfidence is something we see again and again, and it’s exactly what scammers exploit,” Ailís points out.

At the same time, parents may struggle to know how to start the conversation. Lectures about online safety often don’t sufficiently engage their target audiences, while a lack of dialogue leaves teens to navigate risky spaces alone. What’s needed is guidance that is simple, memorable, and easy to apply in the heat of the moment.

That’s where Abhishek’s practical framework comes in. He boils it down to a straightforward acronym: HALT.

• H – Hurried: Am I being rushed?
• A – Authentic: Is this person really who they say they are?
• L – Likelihood: Does the situation make sense?
• T – Talk: Can I talk it through with someone I trust?

“Talking out your decision with someone else makes you far less likely to make a mistake. As you elaborate your decision-making process, you start seeing the flaws in it. It also allows you to slow down and make better decisions,” Abhishek says. For parents, HALT can be a tool for starting conversations with teens in a way that feels practical rather than patronising. And for platforms, embedding prompts like HALT into customer flows — for instance, before high-risk payments or when unusual login activity is detected — could help cut down on fraud-related support calls while empowering users.

The future of scam resilience

Looking ahead, Abhishek sees game-based interventions like Be Scam Ready moving beyond standalone tools and becoming integrated into broader ecosystems, from school curricula and community centers to banking platforms, and social media. The aim is to make scam resilience part of sensitive interactions and reminders.

“Humans are the crucial final layer of defense in preventing scam victimization. Investing in user resilience can have compounding effects on the overall safety of the community and the digital ecosystem,” Abhishek says. Ailís echoes this point, noting that user resilience is often the missing pillar in many platform safety strategies: “Technical safeguards and enforcement are essential, but without investing in people, scams still find a way through.”

For CX leaders, the lesson is that scam prevention is central to trust, safety, and customer loyalty. Resilient users protect themselves and strengthen the entire customer experience.

A call for collective action

Scams targeting teens are on the rise, and awareness campaigns alone aren’t enough. Teens need resilience, and platforms need to embed that resilience into their customer experience strategies. “We may never eliminate scams entirely, but meaningful mitigation is possible, and it starts with giving people tools that genuinely prepare them,” Ailís says.

At WebPurify and IntouchCX, we help brands turn risky moments into resilient customer experiences. Learn more about how our trust & safety consultancy supports both user protection and CX excellence.