UK shoppers increasingly lack self-trust in making secure online purchases – Revolut study

On the eve of Black Friday, fewer Britons are now trusting in their own ability to spot a fake website or a scam offer, with many already paying the price, new research shows. 

That growing lack of self-trust shows through with only 17% feeling ‘very confident’ in their ability to spot fake websites or scam offers online or on social media. And that confidence drops sharply among certain groups with just 12% of women saying they’re ‘very confident’ compared with 22% of men, according to global fintech firm Revolut.

Millennials are the most confident generation (30%), followed by Gen Z (22%), then Gen X (13%). At the other end of the scale, just 10% of Boomers say they’re not confident at all in spotting a scam online, leaving them at most risk of being scammed. 

However, confidence doesn’t always mean protection. Despite Millennials being the most confident generation, 20% have lost money to scammers while shopping online with the majority losing between £100-£250 (23%) and 7% losing over £1,000.

Millennials are the most likely to do their shopping on social media, with 10% planning to do the majority of their Black Friday shopping on Instagram, TikTok Shop or Facebook, more than any other generation, including Gen Z (6%).

More broadly, most victims lost between £50 and £100 (30%) to fake sites and shopping scams, while 4% lost over £1,000, with men twice as likely as women to suffer high-value losses (6% vs 3%).

Woody Malouf, Head of Financial Crime at Revolut said: “The data shows that while [Britons] are becoming more aware of scams, confidence lags behind. As shopping increasingly moves to social media platforms, fraudsters are getting smarter at mimicking trusted brands. The best defence is caution, if it’s too good to be true, it often is and always shop from reliable websites with good reviews.”

He added: “While the data does reveal that [consumers] are starting to become more diligent when shopping online including shopping from trusted websites or apps (66%) avoiding clicking on links in e-mails or social media ads (60%) checking the website URL (39%), it’s clear there’s still a disconnect and Britons are still losing to ever increasing sophisticated scams. Shockingly, 4% take absolutely no precautions at all when shopping online.”