Only one in 10 fraud victims report scams to the website or app where they happened, Which? finds
A survey of 1,500 people who lost money to fraud found most told their bank but few went to the police or the platform involved, and many said the damage to their mental health outlasted the financial loss.
Most people who lose money to a scam tell their bank, but very few report it to the website or app where the fraud began, according to a survey published by the consumer group Which? on Monday.
Which? commissioned the polling company Deltapoll to question 1,501 UK adults who had had money stolen through fraud in the past two years. The fieldwork took place in June.
Three quarters of the victims said they had reported the scam to their bank. Only one in 10 had reported it to the site or app where it took place, which Which? said meant the companies hosting fake adverts, cloned websites and bogus profiles heard about fewer cases than anyone else.
Reporting to the authorities was also low. About one in six told the police, 8% used Action Fraud and 5% used Report Fraud, the national service that replaced Action Fraud at the start of this year.
Where reporting went wrong
About half of the victims who tried to report a scam to an app or website said they found it difficult, compared with one in five who had trouble telling their bank.
Around three in five said they ran into at least one problem when reporting to any organisation. The most common were a lack of response or resolution, long phone queues, being passed between departments and unhelpful staff. Among people who did not tell their bank at all, embarrassment and a feeling that there was no point were the main reasons.
The effect on victims
More victims reported harm to their stress levels (63%) and mental health (54%) than to their finances (47%), and about a third said their physical health had got worse. A quarter said they had changed the way they pay for things online, and one in five had stopped buying goods through social media.
People who already had a mental health condition when they were targeted were more likely to say they had fallen into debt or struggled to afford essentials afterwards, Which? found.
What protection exists
Under rules set by the Payment Systems Regulator, banks and payment firms in the UK must reimburse most victims of authorised push payment fraud, where someone is tricked into sending money to a criminal. The rules cover payments made by Faster Payments or CHAPS between UK accounts, with the cost split between the sending and receiving firms. The Payment Systems Regulator says most victims should be repaid within five business days.
Which? said criminals were moving to other payment methods and hybrid scams that fall outside those protections. The government has said a Fraud Victims Charter, due in 2027, will set minimum standards of care for victims, including response times and consistent advice on getting money back.
