One in five people lost money to scams in the past year, report reveals
A report found that one in five adults say they were targeted by fraud and had money taken from them in the past year.
Twenty per cent of people lost money to these scams in the year to March, according to the State of Scams report in the UK.
The research was published by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), in partnership with fraud prevention service Cifas and financial software provider Tietoevry Banking.
Emails, phone calls, texts, social media messages, digital ads and online marketplaces were common starting points for scam encounters.
A new agreement was signed between the government and industry this week to help protect the UK’s mobile network from fraud.
This will make it harder for criminals to trick people through fraudulent calls.
Mobile networks have pledged to upgrade their networks over the next year to remove the ability for foreign call centers to spoof UK numbers and make it clear that calls are coming from abroad.
Advanced call tracking technology will also be made available on mobile networks to provide police with intelligence to track down fraudsters operating across the country and bring their operations to an end.
Fraud Minister Lord Hanson said on Wednesday: “We are strengthening our defense to protect victims and ensure the UK remains the most difficult place in the world for fraudsters to operate.”
One in four adults (24 percent) say they encounter fraud several times each week.
One in six parents (16 per cent) of children aged seven to 17 said at least one of their children had been scammed.
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Two-thirds (67 percent) of adults surveyed said they had “experienced a scam” in the last 12 months, regardless of whether the scam was successful for the criminal.
Shopping or purchasing scams were the most common type of fraud, affecting 45 percent of this group.
Nearly four-fifths (77 percent) of victims said they reported the scam to payment services, and almost half (47 percent) were able to get at least some of their money back.
When it comes to why people think they’ve been scammed, 22 percent said the scam looked too real, 9 percent said they acted too quickly to realize it was a scam, 9 percent said it looked like a tempting offer, 7 percent said it was their first time using a platform or service, and 6 percent said they didn’t know enough about the real brand the scammer was impersonating.
Nine in 10 adults (91 percent) said they take steps to verify whether an offer is genuine. The most common steps were to consider an offer as “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” and to check for spelling and grammatical errors.
The research also found that millennials aged 29 to 44 had an average of £1,456.90 stolen, while the Gen X age group aged 45 to 60 had an average of £444.10 stolen.
The report also stated: “The impact of fraud extends beyond finances. In the UK, 34 per cent of victims reported a significant or moderate impact on their mental health. Many actually feel shame or stigma when they are manipulated by professionals.”
As Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season approach, GASA, Cifas and Tietoevry Banking have warned that fraudsters often take advantage of seasonal shopping spikes.
Jorij Abraham, GASA Director General, said: “Scams are no longer isolated incidents. They have become a systemic, data-driven threat to the UK’s digital economy.”
Cifas CEO Mike Haley said: “Fraud is a national emergency in the UK, costing billions and affecting the lives of millions of people every year. “What is particularly worrying is that an increasing number of young victims, including children, are being targeted by increasingly sophisticated scams.
“As we enter the busiest shopping season of the year, it is vital that consumers remain vigilant and verify before purchasing.”
Gunnar Koren, head of financial crime prevention at Tietoevry Banking, said: “Today’s criminals create highly targeted and convincing attacks.”
Opinium Research surveyed 2,000 people across the UK in February and March.
