Payment fraud spawns online insecurity, new survey finds

When it comes to fraud, a sense of insecurity, and even inevitability, seems to pervade the consumer psyche, a new global survey shows. The survey, conducted on behalf of Mastercard and fielded by The Harris Poll, included over 13,000 adults across 13 countries.

The survey revealed that seven out of 10 people believe it is more difficult to secure their information on digital platforms than it is to secure their own homes. It's not just the degree of difficulty, for example, remembering a host of passwords and juggling one-time passwords versus turning a key or arming an alarm. It's the scale of the cyber threat. A thousand burglars aren't trying to pick your lock every minute of the day. But nothing similar can be said for online fraudsters.

Last year, losses and damages from cyberattacks totaled $9.5 trillion, making cybercrime the third-largest economy in the world. And it's growing, thanks to widespread availability of AI tools that can supercharge scams and accelerate attacks.

Growing concern about cyber risks

The risks of living in an always-on world are really sinking in, Mastercard related in a press release. Seventy-six percent of survey respondents said they are more concerned about cyber risks impacting their lives than they were just two years ago.

Better than half think about cybersecurity and online safety at least weekly, which is even more than they think about job security. In fact, 80 percent of consumers in the study, globally, said they had received a scam attempt within the past year.

The survey also revealed that younger consumers are more likely to fall for online frauds, that people often feel too ashamed to report these crimes, and nearly 60 percent told pollsters that fraud is so pervasive that they consider being scammed an inevitability.

"If people feel more vulnerable in the virtual world than in their own homes, that signals that trust in the technology the governs our lives is under threat – and there's work to be done to achieve the full promise of the digital economy," said Johan Gerber, global head of security solutions at Mastercard.

For example, Gerber pointed out that 66 percent of consumers would stop shopping altogether at a retailer where they experienced transaction fraud. This would have outsize impact on small businesses, since they tend to have fewer resources to respond to threats and may struggle to regain customer confidence, he noted.

"Trust can't be an afterthought," Gerber said. "It must be the foundation of our digital lives."

The younger they are, the harder they fall

Different generations of consumers perceive and respond to cyber threats differently, the survey revealed. For example, 43 percent of Gen Z and 39 percent of millennials reported that they have engaged with scam attempts, compared to just 22 percent of Gen X and 14 percent of baby boomers.

Ironically, a significant share of younger people told pollsters they were "very confident" in their ability to identify threats than did their elders. One in five Gen Z and millennials expressed such confidence versus fewer than one in 10 members of Gen X and the baby boom generation.

Asked what actions they take to protect themselves from online fraud, members of Gen Z were less likely than were individuals in older generations to check the sender before opening an email or to use security software or tools, while boomers were less likely to enable biometric authentication for their apps or digital accounts, or to review and adjust privacy settings.

Shame is a real fear

Experts say frauds, especially romance cons, are vastly underreported, because the betrayals are so deeply personal, and friends, family and even law enforcement tend to blame the victim. At least that's the perception.

That sense of stigma was borne out by the survey, with nearly six in 10 (59 percent) of those queried saying they would feel ashamed if they fell victim to an online scam; about half said they would be embarrassed to tell anyone if they experienced a fraudulent transaction.

That fear may be overblown, however. A much smaller percentage – just 37 percent of consumers surveyed – said they would judge someone who experienced a fraudulent transaction.

Smarter tech, sharper threats

Anxiety over AI is widespread, from the potential for AI systems to be hacked and turned against users to automated large-scale cyberattacks. Additional fears include AI-generated cloning for scam calls and deepfakes interfering with government and threatening national security.

Nearly three quarters of those surveyed agreed that AI will make it impossible to tell what's real and what's fake online. Just 14 percent said they were "very confident" in their ability to identify AI-generated threats or scams.

"An AI-powered economy can only usher greater growth and deeper connection if we work together to make trust and security inseparable from innovation," Gerber said. "Organizations that weave trust – and security – into every layer of technology will be the ones that thrive. Only in this way can we create a digital future that is both resilient and limitless."

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