New research from Mastercard has revealed that most consumers believe securing their online accounts is harder than protecting their physical homes, highlighting growing concerns over cybersecurity and the stigma attached to falling victim to scams.
According to the report, 76% of consumers globally say they are more concerned about cybersecurity now than they were two years ago. Meanwhile, 70% agree with the statement “it is harder to secure my information on digital platforms than it is to secure my physical home.”
According to Finextra, the findings show this anxiety is consistent worldwide, with the highest concern levels recorded in Singapore (89%), Brazil (86%) and India (81%). Respondents in the US (78%) and the UK (74%) were close to the global average, suggesting the issue is universal rather than regional.
Interestingly, cybersecurity has become a mainstream topic of conversation, with 44% of respondents saying they think about it more often than job security. Mastercard’s findings also show that online scams are impacting younger generations disproportionately. While 80% of respondents have encountered a scam attempt in the past year, the rate of engagement with such scams decreases with age—43% of gen z and 39% of millennials reported engaging with scams, compared to just 22% of gen x and 14% of boomers.
Shopping and retail scams emerged as the most common type of fraud (39%), followed by investment and crypto scams (35%), identity theft (33%) and romance scams (29%). Despite the prevalence of such threats, stigma remains a major barrier to reporting fraud.
The report found that 56% of consumers would feel ashamed if they became a victim of an online scam, while 49% said they would be too embarrassed to tell anyone about a fraudulent transaction. Mastercard’s findings underline the ongoing challenge of encouraging transparency and education around cybersecurity, especially as digital financial activity continues to rise.
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