What have Brits learnt about fraud since 2021?
New research reveals what the UK has learnt about fraud, following our 2021 study.
What have Brits learnt about fraud since 2021?
Following our 2021 study into financial fraud, and with searches for fraud seeing an increase of 47% in the last 12 months1, Lowell has commissioned new research into how fraud affects Brits..
Here at Lowell, we know how important it is to keep your financial information safe from fraudsters and want to open up the conversation about fraud and how to protect yourself.
Fraud is on the rise and Brits should be careful
According to our research, Brits are seeing an increase in different types of fraud from last year. 40% of people have experienced card fraud in 2022, which is a significant increase from the 18% who said they had in 2021. It’s not only card fraud that’s on the rise though, with text message fraud, aka ‘smishing’, being another increasingly common type of fraud, with 17% of respondents saying that they’ve received a fraudulent text in 2022, compared to only 8% in 2021.
There has been an improvement of people checking and verifying phone numbers of senders claiming to be their bank, with 41% confirming in 2022, compared to just 27% in 2021 – but more still needs to be done to prevent fraudsters, who are becoming more intelligent with their approach.
Unfortunately, when it comes to receiving a text message from someone claiming to be their bank, it turns out that one in 10 people are ‘very likely’ to click on a link with a further 10% being ‘somewhat likely’ to as well.
In terms of which details Brits are most willing to share with someone claiming to be from their bank, it turns out that people feel the most likely to give out their home address (15%), followed by the name on the card (13%), and their account number and sort code (6%).
However, almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) did say they wouldn’t give out any bank details when contacted.
With fraud on the rise, it may come as no surprise that Brits are being warned about possible fraudulent risks, with this most likely to come from official banking and financial websites (57%) followed by news outlets (42%). Even friends and family are discussing the topic, with 32% of respondents saying that this is one way they’ve heard about fraud tactics.
In fact, Brits believe that in the past year their bank has been raising more awareness about fraud (43%), and that they’ve been seeing more articles talking about the topic too (39%).
Over a quarter of respondents (28%) said that they understand that there are more types of fraud now than ever before although somewhat worryingly, 16% of respondents don’t feel as though they have been more aware of fraud in the past year.
For more information on how to stop fraud and protect your finances, we have an entire anti-fraud guide full of helpful tips.
Whether you’ve been affected by fraud or not, if you’re struggling to pay your debt with us, please get in touch with our friendly team who will see how we can help. For more information and research about financial well-being, you can read our other articles on the Lowell blog.
- Searches for ‘Fraud Prevention’ in the last 12 months collected via Google Search Trends on 19.10.2022.
- Survey conducted by TLF Panel on behalf of Lowell, 22/09/2022- 26/09/2022. 1,000 general respondents in the UK
Published by Stephanie North-Shaw on 15th November, 2022