A Fifth of Consumers Hit by Fraud Over Past Year

A Fifth of Consumers Hit by Fraud Over Past Year

A fifth of British consumers have suffered fraud over the past 12 months, but many could be doing more to protect their finances, according to a new study from Marqeta.



The card issuing platform polled over 4000 US and UK consumers to compile its 2020 Fraud Report.



It revealed that over a third (38%) of British adults had been the victim of financial fraud, leading many (42%) to accept it as an inevitable cost of participating in the digital economy.



Respondents were fairly split in terms of whose responsibility they think fraud prevention is, with 57% claiming it’s their own and 43% pointing to their banks.



However, it’s clear that online users could do more to protect their digital assets.



Over half (52%) of UK respondents admitted they could be better at protecting personal financial information, and just 34% check online to see if their card details have been exposed following a major data breach, versus 60% in the US.



What’s more, 14% said they lose their card every year. While 85% always cancel it when this happens, only a quarter (23%) said they do so immediately. This matters, because 82% of those who have been defrauded said it happened within an hour of them losing their card.



Fortunately, 83% believe their bank does a good job at alerting them to fraud, with nearly a fifth (39%) saying they have been proactively alerted by their bank before they noticed fraudulent activity themselves.



The current COVID-19 lockdown is offering new opportunities for fraudsters to cash-in on the pandemic, through counterfeit goods and other online scams. ..

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