By De la Fuente, Editor FintechNews
-Almost a third (29%) of Brits feel unsafe online, which is no surprise considering there have been more scams taken down in the last year by the UK’s cybersecurity agency than in the previous three years combined.
16-24-year-olds are surprisingly the age group who feel most unsafe online
More than two-fifths (41%) of this age group admit to feeling unsafe, compared to just nine in 50 (18%) of over-55-year-olds feeling the same. In fact, the higher the age group, the fewer people who do not feel safe online.
When it comes to other online worries, more than half (52%) are concerned that someone else might use their images without their permission, with women more likely (55%) to have this concern than men (49%).
Half (50%) of millennials are concerned about things they shared online when they were younger. Almost half (48%) of millennials are worried that old posts online will come back to haunt them, while almost two-fifths (37%) of Brits have regretted sharing personal details online.
-Belfast is revealed as the UK’s most scammed city, with almost a third (30%) of people from Belfast a victim of online identity theft
-Over one in five (21%) Brits have fallen victim to online identity theft, a cybercrime most commonly impacting 25-34-year-olds.
The most common scams in the UK
Over the last three months, over two-fifths (42%) of Brits have experienced a package delivery scam – such as the recent Royal Mail text scam – making it the most common scam from our survey findings. In second place is a tax rebate scam, impacting a quarter (25%) of the nation in the past three months, followed by TV licence scams, with almost one in five (19%) having experience with these.
| Rank | Type of scam | % who have experienced this scam over the last three months |
| 1 | Package deliveries | 42% |
| 2 | Tax rebate | 25% |
| 3 | TV licence | 19% |
| 4 | Copycat government | 16% |
| 5 | Vehicle tax | 15% |
| 6 | Dating or romance | 14% |
| 7 | COVID-19 vaccine | 13% |
| 8 | Holiday or travel | 10% |
Commenting on the research, Janer Gorohhov, co-founder and CPO at Veriff:
“Cybercriminals are continuously thinking of new ways to commit fraud, with the pandemic sadly providing them with more opportunities than ever – from COVID-19 vaccination scams to fake delivery texts – which is why we wanted to uncover how the nation really feels online and how the future of identity verification can help people feel safer.”
“With the common misconception being that the older generation is most susceptible to online fraud, we were interested to find that the younger generations were the most likely to feel unsafe online. With the internet playing such a vital role in the lives of many young Brits, unfortunately, their hours spent online does not make them any less of a target of online fraud, if anything, it heightens the risk.
“Although our research has highlighted the number of people in the UK who feel unsafe, it is reassuring to discover the public’s knowledge on how they plan to protect themselves against scams online. From identifying where they went wrong in the past in oversharing personal information, to the actions they’ll take in the future to ensure they do their best to stay safe – such as using strong passwords. It’s evident that a secure online identity verification to prove that a person is who they claim to be, is certainly one way to improve online security.”
You can discover the full report here.
