In 2024, one in five consumers fell victim to scams, with the majority affected online, says Barclays fresh report.
According to new Barclays research, 18% of consumers have been scammed in the past year, with 93% of them falling victim to online scams. Additionally, 43% were targeted but managed to identify the scam before losing any money.
The research found that 75% of reported scams originated on social media and tech platforms. Furthermore, 74% of respondents believe that online scams have increased over the past year. As we have previously reported, QR codes have recently become one of the most common tools for online scams, used in 20% of the cases.
Besides the survey respondents themselves falling victim to scammers last year, consumers are increasingly aware of scams targeting their loved ones, with 34% knowing someone who has been scammed. Among them, 17% reported their parent being scammed, and 8% said their grandparent was a victim. Additionally, 42% have been approached by friends or family members to help determine if something is a scam. In particular, elderly people often fall victim to the “Hello Mum” scam – a type of fraud where a scammer impersonates a family member, often a son or daughter, and urgently asks the victim (typically a parent or grandparent) for money. This scam was encountered by 37% of respondents or their loved ones.
Purchase scams made up 74% of the reported scam volumes, while investment scams represented a significant one-third portion of the total value of claims, though they represented just 4% of the volume of reported scams. Other top reported scams included fake delivery, HMRC, “Hello Mum” WhatsApp, ticket and advance fee scams.
Barclays’ research highlighted the overwhelming variety of scam tactics and emphasised the need for tech firms to take stronger preventive actions. This advice is supported by consumer sentiment results. A survey found that 77% of consumers believe tech companies should do more to prevent scams on their platforms, and 64% feel they should be required to reimburse scam victims. Additionally, nearly half (49%) of respondents are comfortable with banks and tech companies sharing personal data to protect users from scams or to address targeting by scammers.
At the same time, users do not fully place all the responsibility for scam resistance on the tech providers. Notably, a lot of consumers easily detect a scam. Thus, the survey respondents are most familiar with fake delivery and HMRC scams, with 83% and 80% awareness, respectively.
However, fewer than two-thirds are aware of AI cloning and recruitment scams, which have a recognition rate of 62%. Moreover, one in three respondents (32%) now feel less confident in their ability to spot scams, as the variety of fraudsters’ tactics grows. In fact, over half of the people surveyed feel overwhelmed by the ever-evolving methods used to target victims.
