Fraud Victims Lose £9.3bn in Well-Being per Year

Fraud victims suffer well-being costs of £9.3bn per year, according to a new study by Which?

The consumer group made the calculation after conducting an analysis of the psychological harms experienced by people who lose money to scammers. The research conducted with consultancy firm Simetrica found that scam victims have a lower life satisfaction on average than the general population. This includes higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of happiness and to a lesser extent, worse general health.

To make their findings, the researchers analyzed over 17,000 responses to a survey by the Office for National Statistics' Crime Survey for England and Wales, which asked respondents about the impact on well-being of being scammed.

They applied these results to a social impacts model approved by the UK government earlier this year. This model translates well-being changes into monetary terms.

Which? then calculated that the average drop in well-being for fraud victims equates to £2509 per year. The value is even higher for online fraud, at £3684. These figures are significantly higher than the average financial fraud losses, estimated by Which? to be around £600 per incident.

By applying these calculations to the 3.7 million fraud incidents in 2019/20, the researchers concluded that the overall well-being loss associated with fraud is £9.3bn.

Interestingly, online fraud alone was associated with well-being losses of £7.2bn, highlighting how scammers have increasingly targeted digital consumers in recent years, particularly amid the digital shift since COVID-19. ..

Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.