New Research Shows Consumers Have a False Sense of Security with Online Scams – and a Willingness to Take Action to Stop Them

You’ve probably been there before: a suspicious text from a number you already have saved in your phone, a sketchy email with a dubious link, a voicemail from a hidden number purporting to offer urgent financial help if you’d just call back soon. And you’ve probably thought to yourself: Of course, that’s a scam. Yet according to new research from Trend Micro, consumers aren’t quite as adept at spotting scams – or understanding their vulnerability to them – as they might think.

To better understand consumer attitudes and behaviors toward different scams and help consumers fight back against increasingly sophisticated scammers, Trend commissioned a demographically representative survey of over 6,000 adults in countries across the globe including the U.S., Australia, the U.K., Singapore, and Taiwan.

The results were stark: Even as scams get more nefarious and bad actors have more advanced, AI-powered tools at their fingertips to target consumers, there’s significant work to do to educate consumers about scams and the crucial role they can play in preventing them. Thirty-six percent of consumers, for example, believe that you can only be a victim of online scams if you share “too much” online, and 45% say scams can be identified easily by spotting grammar and spelling errors. Sixty-two percent also agree to some extent that those who fall for romance scams are those who are “easily fooled.” This suggests a false sense of security – as a large swath of consumers believe that it can’t, or won’t, happen to them.

Consumers also demonstrated different experiences with different types of scams. Globally, respondents were much more likely to report having been targeted by investment scams (27%) versus romance (14%) or sextortion scams (6%). Interestingly, they are also much more likely to tell friends or family if they were victims of an investment scam (80% would) than a romance scam (65%); respondents may feel greater shame in discussing romance scams, which can often be deeply personal and leave them feeling more vulnerable than financial scams. And, only a small minority have even discussed with friends or family what to do if targeted by scams, ranging from 13% for romance scams to 21% for investment scams.

Still, there is hope that consumers are ready – and willing – to take action. Overall, 74% believe it is worth reporting if they encounter a scam, and solutions like the new Trend Micro ScamCheck app give them the ability to do just that. While this survey uncovers vulnerabilities in the consumer mindset toward scams and threats online, it’s clear that education – and a renewed focus on reporting, collaborating against, and discussing scams – can help turn the tide and expose the shared risks we all face in our online worlds.

To take control and fight back against scammers, download the Trend Micro ScamCheck app by clicking the button below: