In a week long survey just completed by international research organization One Poll, for “Get Safe Online Week”, over one in five (21%) victims of a cybercrime believe they were specifically targeted by fraudsters and over a third (37%) had been left feeling vulnerable as a result. Only 38% of the victims believed that the incident was down to bad luck and over half (57%) think it’s becoming much easier to fall victim to an online crime.

It’s always personal

The Get Safe Online survey went on to show that over a quarter of victims (26%) had been scammed by phishing emails or ‘vishing’ phone calls. These are a much more targeted type of scam where the fraudster uses data about the victim pieced together from various sources such as social media and intercepted correspondence to sound convincing, and manipulates them into sharing confidential information linked to online accounts.

Other areas where victims were targeted include:

• Fake tax rebate emails (13%)
• Phone/tablet/laptop hacking (9%)
• Identity theft (5%)
• Cyber bullying or harassment (4%)
• Personal images stolen via webcam hacking (1%).

The financial cost of a crime

41% of people who have been a victim of a cybercrime lost money with the average person losing £738. Men, however, are likely to lose significantly more, with the average loss being £839 compared to £617 for women. Shockingly, 8% stated they had lost in excess of £5,000.

Separate figures, prepared by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for Get Safe Online Week, give an indication to the sheer scale of online crime, with over £268 million lost nationwide to the top ten internet‐enabled frauds reported between 1st September 2014 and 31st August 2015. The £268 million number comes from reports of fraud to Action Fraud, calculated when the first contact to victims was via an online function.

Awareness of Cybercrime

However, as a significant number of internet‐enabled fraud cases still go unreported the true economic cost to the UK is likely to be significantly higher. According to the survey, almost one in five (19%) don’t bother reporting a cybercrime.

The survey also indicates that the public are more aware of the risk of cybercrime; 30% of those surveyed think they know more about online safety now compared to a year ago and a further 21% say they know more than they did two years ago.

High profile data breaches in the news have also made people more cautious about their behaviour online, with the majority (64%) of the public being more cautious about sharing their personal data with companies. However, women are much more cautious (69%) compared to just 60% of men. 23% claimed it was specifically the Carphone Warehouse breach, 22% said they were most worried following the rise in scams in the wake of the pension reforms earlier in the year, 18% cited the Apple iTunes email scam and 17% stated the Talk Talk, Sony and Ashley Madison data hacks respectively.

The survey was conducted on-line with 2000 respondents