Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A survey conducted last month shows the extent to which e-mail fraud schemes, also known as phishing scams, are affecting consumers and their willingness to do business online, just as financial institutions and retailers are pushing to move more transactions into the online channel. Fully 75% of bank accountholders are now less likely to respond to e-mail from their banks, while 65% said they are now less likely to enroll in or continue to use the banks' online service, according to the survey, which was sponsored by Cyota Inc., a New York-based producer of anti-fraud software for e-commerce. Cyota released the results of the survey today. Because of phishing, 74% of respondents say they are now less likely to shop online. While 91% of the respondents said information from their banks regarding phishing is helpful, some 67% said they had not received any such information. Further, 41% said they were unfamiliar or only slightly familiar with their banks' policies on online data, including policies on what information the banks will and will not ask for in e-mails. Perhaps as a result, only a small minority, 30%, said they were sure they could distinguish between a legitimate and faked e-mail. Cyota's survey drew 650 responses and was conducted with Infosurv, an online market-research company. It has a statistical accuracy of plus or minus 3.84%. Respondents are representative of the online U.S. adult population with a bank account.
