Britain’s 12% Online Shoppers Fall to Fake Schemes

As per a new YouGov survey commissioned by an Internet security firm 'Verisign,' UK's 12% population or one in eight Internet users has become a victim of online fraud.

The survey has found that cyber criminals succeeded in stealing £2.61 Billion from Internet users over the past 12 months, while 14% of users were still hopeful of getting their money back. Thus, each victim of cyber attacks lost an average of £463.

Despite these scaring statistics, the survey has highlighted that British web users generally follow security instruction as 82% of them make online shopping from secure websites. 3% more women compared to men have claimed that they ensure the legitimacy of website before making any online transaction on it.

Older people are more vulnerable to fake schemes compared to young population since 14% of people in the age group of 45-54 years have succumbed to online frauds against mere 5% of people in the age group of 18-24 years, said the research. People buying online in London do not give much importance to security and are extremely careless while making any transaction.

The study has also indicated that computer users in Scotland were less vulnerable to online attacks compared to users in other geographical regions of Britain. Only 8% of people surveyed in Scotland admitted of falling to fake schemes while Wales had the highest number of victims at 20% claiming to had been ensnared by frauds.

Security researchers have blamed to increasing sophistication level of attack vectors and rising number of online shoppers for unprecedented hike in online attacks. Experts also state that many users are unacquainted with ways of identifying illegitimate websites and data theft issues.

The findings clearly highlight the urgency of spreading awareness among online shoppers of data protection, said VeriSign.

Martin Mackay, Vice President of VeriSign for EMEA, said that the study had given information of the relationship between number of scammed people and people checked website's security before shopping, as reported by Computer Weekly on September 16, 2009.

Richard Hurley, Communications Manager of CIFAS (UK's fraud prevention service) said that although cyber criminal were getting wiser in attack techniques, online shoppers could easily defy their attempt by increasing awareness of prevention tricks, as reported by BCS on September 16, 2009.

Related article: Britons Resist to Go Online for Fear of Cybercrime

» SPAMfighter News - 10/7/2009