The news: With scams on the rise, advertisers and brands need to be thoughtful with their communications to keep it out of junk folders.

• 96% of US adults get at least one scam email, phone call, or text message each week, per CNET.
• 37% receive over 10 scam emails per week, and 23% get more than 10 spam calls.

Generational threats: Scammers often tailor their approach based on age and platform.

• Scam emails primarily target Gen Xers and baby boomers: 94% of people in those generations get at least one scam email per week.
• Scam calls are most likely to affect baby boomers, 89% of whom get at least one scam phone call per week. This could be an especially big threat amid the rise of AI-generated voice deepfakes, which could be harder for older generations to detect.
• Gen Zers are especially vulnerable on social media, where two-thirds get one or more social media scam messages weekly. Scams on Facebook and Instagram accounted for about 84% of all social media-related fraud in the first half of 2023, per the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The stakes: Spam filtering is a valuable resource for consumers to protect themselves from scams and fraud. However, it presents a significant challenge for marketers.

• Spam filtering is the biggest barrier to reaching consumer inboxes for 60.3% of businesses, per Kickbox.
• Email deliverability problems have affected revenues or customer retention for 64.6% of businesses.

What to do? The scam messaging epidemic may be heightening consumer wariness and making user trust a scarce commodity. Precise ad targeting and original messaging could help separate genuine outreach from spam and fraud content.

• Brands should avoid a spray-and-pray approach when emailing—if multiple messages are reported as spam, internet service providers (ISPs) may blacklist senders.
• Adding company contact information and user-specific content could help reinforce legitimacy when texting or sending social media messages.

Our take: To stop volume fatigue, brands should avoid inundating users’ phones and inboxes with constant messaging. Social media could offer a less-saturated space where short-form content can exemplify brand personality and where users are more likely to expect engagement.

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