Broke, desperate Americans are most likely to be targeted by scam artists and the amount they lose is rising, the National Consumers League said.

The non-profit group received 15,000 complaints last year about fraud, including 5,742 from people reporting they lost money, according to new data.

The average loss was $2,332.03 (1,630.79 pounds), about $500 more than in 2007. The amounts may seem paltry¹ compared with what accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff's investors² lost but still were serious for those taken in by the scams.

With the United States in recession, the financial sector³ in crisis and Americans worried about keeping their jobs and homes, the National Consumers League urged extra vigilance.

"Consumers today should be even more on their guard than they were in the past. When you're in desperate straits, you're going to be more attractive to scammers," said John Breyault, the group's vice⁴ president for public policy.

Breyault said the number of e-mail scams -- like the one from the putative⁵ prince who will make you rich if you just send $10,000 -- are down, probably partly because of better spam filters.

But there were more Internet merchandise scams, he said, possibly because people in dire⁶ financial straits were hunting for bargains on unreliable websites.

His group also found more cases of "social engineering fraud" -- like "phishing" messages that purport⁷ to come from a bank and seek personal information that could be used for identity theft.

美国国家消费者联盟称，经济破产、心情绝望的美国人最有可能成为骗子的目标，而且他们被诈骗的数额呈上升趋势。

据最新数据显示，这家非赢利组织去年共收到一万五千起诈骗投诉，其中5742起是钱财诈骗。

去年的平均诈骗金额达2332.02美元（合1630.79英镑），比2007年增加500美元。虽然诈骗金额与华尔街伯纳德•麦道夫的惊天诈骗案相比，也许不足挂齿，但对于受害者来说还是很痛苦。

目前美国深陷经济衰退，金融领域面临危机，人们担心工作和家庭不保，美国国家消费者联盟敦促人们此时更要提高警惕。

该组织的公共政策副总裁约翰•布瑞约特说：“消费者现在应该比以往更加小心。当你处于困境时，更容易成为骗子的目标。”

布瑞约特称，去年的邮件诈骗数量有所减少，这可能得益于垃圾邮件过滤器性能的提升，例如某个传说中的大亨告诉你只要给他汇一万美金就能让你成为富翁。

但与此同时，网络商务诈骗有所增加，这可能是因为身处财政危机中的人们在不可靠的网站上购买廉价商品。

该机构还发现“社会工程诈骗”增多，例如声称来自银行，盗取个人信息以实施身份盗窃的“网络钓鱼”信息。

 Vocabulary:

scam artist:骗子

paltry: lacking in importance or worth;trivial（不足取的，无价值的）