Survey reveals extent of UK’s online fraud problems

Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - 10:48 by David Aiken

A report commissioned by Paysafe has shown that 66 per cent of Brits believe that it is effectively impossible to rule out the likelihood of falling victim to fraud when buying products and services via the web.

This suggests that consumers are losing faith in the ability of retailers to offer safe shopping online, as a similar study conducted last year found that this opinion was held by just 52 per cent of respondents.

A third of those questioned in the 2018 report said that they had suffered some kind of fraud online within the last 12 months. 

Analysts also looked at the different payment solutions that are being used by shoppers, with 61 per cent harnessing digital wallets, 57 per cent relying on debit cards and just 34 per cent making purchases via a credit card.

The good news for retailers is that consumers are more trusting of companies which they have already shopped with before, with four out of five people saying that they tend to carry out safe shopping online using sites that have held onto their payment details from a past purchase.

When asked to identify the aspects of online shopping that they see as being the least well protected from fraudulent activity at the moment, two thirds said that voice controlled assistant services were the biggest concern. Meanwhile 43 per cent said that they were worried about how retailers were making use of their personal information.

Report spokesperson, Oscar Nieboer, said that although e-commerce was hugely popular in the UK, it was still an area in which consumers faced a number of obstacles when it comes to security. Indeed the love that Brits have for shopping online is so strong that they are willing to accept the risk of fraud simply because of how convenient and cost-effective it is.