The majority of Britons mistakenly believe that older people are more susceptible to fraud
Misconceptions make young Brits more vulnerable to fraud. Source:?shutterstock.com
New Barclays research shows that the British misjudged the older generation of over 71 as the generation most at risk of fraud. They also believe that those between the ages of 21 and 30 are the least at risk of being victimized.
In spite of that, the 21-30 age group has actually experienced the most fraud in the past three months (29% of the total), followed by those aged 31-40.
Shopping scams, where people buy items online that don’t exist or never get delivered, were most prevalent among those between the ages of 21 and 30, with this demographic accounting for 30% of fraudsters.
But only 17% of respondents in this age group knew they could be targeted when they buy products in the online marketplace. It is alarming that the data also shows that fraudsters are successfully targeting the youngest age group (11–20 years), with this group accounting for 10% of the total number of shopping fraud victims.
Individuals between the ages of 31 and 40 were the second most targeted group for fraudsters, accounting for 24% of the total number of fraudsters. Also, they were especially exposed to prepaid fraud – where victims send money in advance to receive goods, services or investments that never materialize (25% of total prepaid fraud).
Oppositely to popular opinion, the study found that people aged 61 to 70 were more alert to the possibility of widespread fraud (97,6%). Although the data showed that this age group is particularly susceptible to impersonation fraud (32% of fraud in this age group), however only 17% of fraud in this age group accounted for 61% of fraud losses in this age group.
And while a recent survey shows that the prevalence of fraud is still in line with a study from three months ago, when 84% of respondents said they saw an increase in fraud, encouragingly one in five (20%) does not believe that it has become straightforward in the past three months, up from 4% previously.
We’ve reported that e-commerce transaction values via voice assistants to grow by over 320%.
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