“Women most likely” to fall prey to online scammers

Women between the ages of 25 and 34 are most likely to fall victim to online scams costing the UK £2.7b every year says a new study commissioned by KnowtheNet.org.uk

Knowthenet.org.uk is a new website supported by Nominet, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for administrating all .uk domains. Security experts carried out a survey of 2,000 Internet users, testing their ability to spot scams and online ripoffs ranging from fake Facebook pages and competition scams to sales of counterfeit goods.

In six of the seven test categories, the most likely group to fail was women between the ages of 25 and 34, failing on average 3 of the seven tests. However the survey identified that the group most likely to be scammed was highly dependent upon the type of scam. “Distress scams”, where users are contacted by someone claiming to be in financial trouble or stranded abroad and asking for money, were more likely to be fallen for by men (53% failing the test).

Psychologist Anjula Mutanda, who supported the research, said “When you’re in the comfort of your own home or office, surrounded by the familiar, getting an email asking for personal details from a bank or from a friend on Facebook may not seem out of the ordinary or raise suspicion. You may not think you’re at risk but it’s important to remember scammers are sneaky and carefully target individuals by tapping into their emotional needs, wants, habits, desires and vulnerabilities.”

If you want to assess your own knowledge of online scams and get your personalised “threat score”, you can take the Know the Net Threat Test here

Romance scam victim Helen recently told her story to Scam Detectives and you can read about how she lost over £80,000 here

**UPDATE** Scam Detectives editor Charles Conway will be discussing this report on BBC Radio Oxford at lunchtime today (Wednesday 10th November) - Listen Live!

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Tags: Knowthenet.org.uk, Nominet, scam victims