(TNND) — Nearly three-quarters of Americans have experienced some kind of online scam or attack, according to a new Pew Research Center report.
And that might even be underselling the extent of the problem, said C. Jordan Howell, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of South Florida and the managing partner at cybersecurity firm Ventel.
Most people don’t know they’re being scammed, Howell said.
“Oftentimes, your computer’s been breached with malware, your information’s being used in ways that you’re completely unaware of up until you finally experience that financial loss,” he said.
The Pew Research Center report showed that both younger and older folks are being targeted by online scams and attacks.
Nearly half of the people said online hackers have stolen credit or debit card information from them and made fraudulent charges.
Close to 30% said a personal online account was hacked.
About a quarter of people said a scam email, text or call led them to give away personal information.
And 10% said they’ve experienced ransomware that blocked use of their computer until they paid money.
Over 60% of people said they get suspected scam calls at least weekly.
Similar shares said the same for emails and texts.
A third of people said they encounter suspected scams via social media every week.
And 21% of people said they have lost money because of an online scam or attack.
Bankrate senior industry analyst Ted Rossman also said a lot of cybercrime probably goes unreported.
“Because people are ashamed or they don’t know how to report it, or they don’t take the time to do it,” Rossman said. “We did a recent financial fraud survey. We found that about two-thirds of Americans have experienced financial scams or fraud in their lifetimes, about one in three just within the past year. Of those who’d been scammed in the past year, almost 40% of them have lost money.”
Fraudsters are preying on the vulnerability of payment apps or gift cards that don’t have the same protections as credit cards, Rossman said.
“The common thread here is untraceable, hard to reverse,” he said. “That’s why fraudsters use those platforms.”
And Rossman said scams can get pretty sophisticated.
Over 70% of people told the Pew Research Center that they know at least a fair amount about how to avoid falling for an online scam or attack.
Still, people get busy or distracted and might let their guard down, Rossman said.
The bad guys can pose as a bank, government agency, friend or family member.
Scammers can deploy artificial intelligence-powered tools to attack more victims, more quickly and in harder-to-detect ways.
“Unfortunately, sometimes the bad guys are one step ahead, and they’re using some of these newer tools in nefarious ways,” Rossman said.
Rivka Gewirtz Little, the chief growth officer at Socure, which develops software that companies use for identity verification, said scams will never go away.
And she said fraudsters innovate alongside the people who are innovating to stop them.
But she applauded the research and said that the cybersecurity community can slow the growth of scams.
“The more research that we see coming out and the more people are studying the trends of how consumers are reacting to this, the more likely it is that we’ll see change,” Little said.
The FBI said there was a 33% increase in reported losses from cyber-enabled crime and fraud last year.
The FBI said over $16 billion in losses were reported by Americans.
Howell said Americans are often the targets of overseas-based cybercriminals.
“There’s a much bigger cybercriminal culture elsewhere, and oftentimes they attack Americans because it’s a goldmine,” Howell said. “We oftentimes have more resources, we have greater access to digital infrastructure, and we’re oftentimes willing to throw in all of our information in order to expedite the process of shipping.”
He, like Little, said we can’t escape online scams.
But we can reduce our risk.
“It’s a multi-layered approach,” Howell said. “So, there’s obviously these technical solutions that are proven to be effective, strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, et cetera. But then you also need that awareness that everyone claims to have.”
Trust should never be the default, Howell said.
Rossman said identity theft is more harmful than a one-off fraudulent charge.
“A good defense there is to do a credit freeze, and it’s something you can do for free online or over the phone,” Rossman said.
He said a credit freeze doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s one of the few proactive things people can do to guard against online scams.
“You do it with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can prevent people from opening unauthorized accounts in your name,” Rossman said. “Literally what it does is it prevents lenders from seeing your credit report. And if they can’t see the report, they won’t issue credit. So, what you want to lock out is the bad guys opening a credit card in your name or something like that.”
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