Survey Finds Fraud Abundant, More So Around Holidays

Dec 22, 2008 12:47 PM

Almost one in five New York state Internet users received a notification from their bank or credit card issuer in the last year saying personal or financial information had been compromised according to a survey by Consumer Reports WebWatch.

Other findings include:
* More than a quarter of New York state residents have had a bad experience in an online auction.
* About the same number (24 percent) encountered a malicious software infection. Of those, 20 percent had to reformat their hard drives.
* More than 75 percent received a fraudulent e-mail offering illegal prescription drugs or phony congratulations on winning a bogus lottery.
* 33 percent received offers to participate in check fraud scams.

"There's good news, and there's bad news," said Beau Brendler, director of WebWatch. "People in New York are dealing with spam, fake lottery scams and some privacy concerns. But a significant number of us still have much to learn about protecting ourselves from con artists, fraudsters and other criminals on the Internet."

Seventeen percent of respondents had a problem getting their money back from an actual online purchase. More than 20 percent of these respondents reported not getting their money refunded from a problematic online transaction. Creating a special credit card account to use only for online transactions is one way to address online fraud and privacy concerns. However, relatively few New York state residents reported taking this action - adults ages 25-34 the most often, at 11 percent, similar to other age groups. Slightly more said they used this tactic when trying to avoid problems with badware.

For more than two years, online auction fraud has been the number one complaint of New York state residents to government organizations that keep track. The WebWatch survey shows that 27 percent of state residents who have ever used an online auction Web site, such as eBay or Amazon, have experienced a scam or deceptive practice -- 32 percent of eBay users were scammed.

New York consumers do appear to be taking significant steps toward protecting privacy. A little over half say they have deleted "cookies" - programs placed on your computer by Web sites for purposes ranging from remembering your shopping history to behavioral tracking. Older users are least likely to delete cookies -- 57 percent said they did not.

Interestingly, those most likely to change account information on a Web site to limit the amount of personal information stored there, were the youngest age surveyed, 18-24-year-olds at 43 percent. The least likely to purge personal information were people 65 and over at 7 percent.

The survey was commissioned by Consumer Reports WebWatch and supported by a CyberAwareness Grant from the New York State Office of Attorney General and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue