88% of Portuguese people fear becoming victims of some type of digital fraud. This is what the new study carried out by SAS, a leading analytics company, tells us, which reveals that 66% believe that the companies they deal with should do more to protect them and, also for this reason, 60% are much more cautious than they are. never in relation to this subject and 51% even say they are less willing to share their personal data.
Under the title “How can organizations protect consumers from fraud”, SAS interviewed 13.500 consumers to analyze trends in digital fraud, in more than 15 countries around the world.
In Portugal, 29% of respondents believe they have been victims of some type of fraud at least once and 62% say they have already suffered some fraud attempt in the last year. In this sense, the theft of banking data is positioned as the most common type of fraud, followed by the theft of personal data and those situations in which consumers are induced to believe that they have won some type of financial prize. As for the channels most used by criminals to carry out their attacks and target victims, they are cell phones (73%), email (71%), followed by WhatsApp (40%).
“Cybercriminals use increasingly sophisticated techniques. It is not surprising, therefore, that the vast majority of Portuguese consumers are worried about being victims of any type of fraud”, says Carla Miranda, Principal Business Solutions Manager, Iberia for Fraud & Compliance at SAS.
“The risk of suffering an attempted theft of information or fraud is greater and even more harmful than in the past. Therefore, public and private entities must consider the safety and protection of their customers as a fundamental objective. Consumers are increasingly aware of the security of their data, and protecting it is reason enough to make important decisions. An important (and positive) fact that demonstrates this awareness is that 52% say that if they are contacted by someone they are not expecting, first of all they will try to understand their legitimacy/credibility”.
