Fraud Fear: Three-quarters of consumers fearful of being victim of fraud

Three-quarters of UK consumers are fearful of being a victim of fraud, according to a new consumer fraud study commissioned by AI and analytics leader, SAS.

The survey of 13,500 global consumers found that 86% were more wary of fraud in 2022 than before, while more than three in 10 have been victims of fraud twice or more. The findings have been reviewed and analysed in a new report entitled Faces of Fraud: Consumer experiences with fraud and what it means for businesses.

Nearly 90% of UK consumers also think that organisations should be doing more to protect them from fraud.

Around 87% are growing increasingly wary of fraud, and when contacted by someone they weren’t expecting to hear from, nearly all will ignore or end the call, try to establish if it’s a legitimate inquiry, or both.

Obtaining bank details or personal information was found to be the most common type of attempted fraud, while the main channels used to target consumers were emails and mobile phones.

Christen Kirchner, Senior Solutions Expert, Fraud & AML at SAS Northern Europe, said:

“With fraudsters becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s no surprise that three-quarters of consumers are fearful of becoming a victim of fraud. The study also shows that a quarter of consumers believe that their financial providers are not clear on the action they are taking to protect them from fraud and other financial crimes.”

When asked about the impact of security checks on customer experience, three in 10 believed that more needed to be done to make the process slicker. Even so, three-quarters said they would agree to more delays and checks during transactions in return for better fraud protection.

Interestingly, 56% prefer to be authenticated at time of transaction using unique identifiers like biometrics rather than remembering fixed passwords.

Christen added: “The use of facial recognition and fingerprints could solve two challenges at once. It provides an extra layer of security to prevent fraud, while speeding up transactions because consumers don’t have to remember long and complex passwords.

“The research also shows a willingness among consumers to enable providers to use technology in the fight against fraud. Around seven in 10 are willing to share personal data with service providers on the basis they can use this information to better protect them against fraud.”

To find out more download the report Faces of Fraud: Consumer experiences with fraud and what it means for businesses.

Methodology

SAS commissioned 3Gem Research and Insights to undertake a global study into some of the key trends in fraud against consumers at the end of 2022. The findings are based on a sample size of 13,500, with a 50/50 split of males and females. Respondents came from the UK and mainland Europe, the USA, Canada, Brazil, UAE and South Africa. There were 1,000 respondents from the UK.

Complementing the Faces of Fraud e-book, SAS’ online dashboard offers data visualisation tools that allow users to examine findings by country and age demographics. Explore the survey data at SAS.com/frauddashboard.

Please credit the research to SAS.

Today's announcement was made at SAS Explore, the technology conference from SAS. Keep up with the latest news from SAS by following @SASsoftwareNews on X/Twitter.