Women 25- 34 Most Likely To Be Scammed Online
It has been revealed today that Brits are the most likely to be scammed online.
The research was commissioned by a new online advice site, knowthenet.org.uk, to better understand the profile of online scam victims. Surprisingly they found that professional women aged 25-34 are most likely to fall victim of online scams including phishing, Facebook and competition scams.
The study involved more than 2,000 online consumers, and measured their ability to spot and respond appropriately to seven online scam scenarios. The tests ranged from identifying fake Facebook pages to testing how consumers respond to competition scams or the sale of counterfeit goods online.
In six out of the seven tests, the most likely demographic to fail was women. However, the majority of men (53%) failed to identify scams in which people tried to persuade them to send money to help someone in distress.
Peter Wood, security expert at knowthenet.org.uk, explains: “Scammers are becoming more devious in how they target victims and are constantly changing their attacks to reflect what people expect to see online or are interested in. New tricks like pharming work by redirecting your web browser so that when you type in a legitimate web address, you are actually redirected without knowing to a fake site. People then happily type in their personal details and don’t know they’re being scammed before it’s too late.”
Online fraud affects 1.8 million Britons every year, costing the economy £2.7bn, according to National Fraud Authority
