Financial literacy is essential for young people’s financial well-being. For young people striving for financial independence, financial well-being is a crucial part of life-satisfaction and identity. Frequent presence on social media and other online platforms makes young people particularly susceptible for commercial persuasion, also exposing them to scams and frauds. Therefore, young people also need digital financial literacy. In the current study, we examined, using structural equation modelling, how young people’s financial and digital financial skills and susceptibility to persuasion relate to online shopping scam victimization, and how online scam victimization affect indebtedness and subjective financial well-being. We found that a high level of financial literacy and digital financial skills reduced young people’s probability to become victims of online shopping scams. Susceptibility to persuasion increased the risk for online shopping scam victimization, which increased the likelihood of indebtedness and decreased subjective financial well-being. Based on our results we argue that financial and digital education should include advanced knowledge of the persuasion techniques in digital environments to help young people combat fraud and scams. In addition to schools and families, also other societal actors and networks are needed to build young people’s resilience to online persuasion and scams.
