Laidback Brits putting themselves at risk of fraud

Millions of Brits are putting themselves at risk of fraud, due to the amount of personal information they share on social media and a false confidence that they would never fall victim to scammers. New research released today from Lloyds Bank found that nearly a third (30%) don’t know if they’ve shared information on their profiles that could make them vulnerable to scammers and that over a quarter of Brits (29%) believe that fraud through social media just ‘won’t happen to them’.

Despite the latest industry statistics showing over 1.4million cases of fraud in the first half of 2020, totalling £582.1million of financial losses, more than eight out of 10 people (81%) say they are confident in spotting the signs of fraud. Men, overall, are more confident than women (85% vs 78%), yet one in 10 haven’t heard of any of the most common scams. While four in five people believe they could spot a scam before falling victim, a quarter confessed to making no effort to keep up with fraudsters’ latest techniques.

The average Brit has around 300 friends on Facebook but interacts with only 28% of them in real life. Worryingly, a third have accepted a friend or follow request from someone they don’t know personally, while one in four (25%) are unaware who can see their social media posts. Over one in 10 (12%) don’t know how to change privacy settings on social media to prevent strangers from seeing their posts.

Lloyds Bank is calling on Brits to think carefully about information they are sharing online, get clued up on the most common types of fraud and to talk more with friends and family about the risks to help them stay safe. As part of this, the bank has partnered with iconic barbershop Johnny’s Chop Shop on an experiment to show how easy it is to get personal information from social media posts. The barbers demonstrated this to unsuspecting customers by gleaning information from their social media accounts and weaving increasingly personal details into chitchat during their haircut to show them just how much they could easily find out about them online.

Aston spoke to Paul Davis, head of fraud at Lloyds Bank to discuss the research in further detail and also offer tips and advice on how to be more vigilant.