Final report (PDF): Online fraud and the sense of pervasive threat

Much of the public and policy debate about the cost of fraud does not take into account the extent to which fraud attempts, regardless of whether they result in victimisation, impact on individuals and society as a whole. Almost every member of society who has some engagement with the digital world – whether through work, online shopping or banking, social media or entertainment platforms, or in other ways – is likely to regularly encounter phishing and other online activity aimed at fraudulently accessing data, money, property or services.

In this paper, the authors discuss some of the consequences of the pervasive threat of online fraud – drawing on the findings of focus groups with the general public which were conducted as part of the Tackling Online Fraud project.