Over half of adults think they will never fall victim to a scam

A naïve 16 % merely assume “it gained’t occur to me”, whereas 17 % really feel persons are silly to fall for scams.

However practically a 3rd (31 %) of these polled have been a sufferer of fraud themselves, whereas 43 % know another person who has.

This left victims feeling aggravated (41 %), offended (34 %), and upset (34 %).

Liam Rawsthorne, head of fraud at Virgin Media O2, which commissioned the examine, mentioned: “It’s worrying that so many individuals assume it’ll by no means occur to them and aren’t taking their safety as significantly as they need to.

“Utilizing their sufferer’s private data, fraudsters will attempt to empty financial institution accounts, rack up hundreds of kilos of debt, and take out cell phone contracts – earlier than disappearing and leaving a path of destruction of their wake.

“With fraud on the rise and scammers utilizing more and more refined tips to defraud victims, anybody can change into a sufferer – so it’s extra essential than ever that individuals know learn how to keep protected.”

The examine additionally discovered 52 % of individuals have answered a telephone name from an unknown quantity, and 35 % have clicked on a hyperlink in an e mail with out recognising it.

And one in three (34 %) have clicked on a hyperlink by way of a textual content message with out recognising the telephone quantity or hyperlink.

In consequence, 1 / 4 have had cash taken from their checking account, whereas 35 % obtain a lot of spam emails, and 33 % had been repeatedly cold-called.

In a typical month, adults obtain six suspected spam emails, 5 textual content messages, and 5 telephone calls.

However 81 % really feel assured they will spot fraud messages, and argue they don’t reply to dodgy-looking emails (47 %), usually change passwords (32 %), and by no means depart accounts logged in (37 %).

Three in ten imagine being tech savvy helps preserve them protected from fraud – but 22 % of these polled, by way of OnePoll, admitted they use easy passwords which are straightforward to recollect, and 23 % even write their passwords down.

Multiple in 5 (22 %) additionally mentioned it’s handy for others to have entry to their accounts, and have shared log-in particulars for his or her laptop computer (17 %), private emails (17 %), and on-line banking (15 %).

Liam Rawsthorne, from Virgin Media O2, added: “We’re dedicated to preventing the fraudsters, and are serving to prospects swerve scams with suggestions and tips.”