Consumer watchdog Which? has reiterated its call for the UK government to tackle fraudulent paid-for advertising in the upcoming Online Safety Bill, after finding social media platforms and search engines are failing to adequately protect their users from scams.
Research conducted by Which? found that an estimated nine million people – or 17% of those who responded to its nationally representative survey – had been targeted by a scam on social media, with only one in five consumers feeling protected online.
It also found that four in 10 (43%) were dissatisfied with the protection from scams provided by social media platforms and search engines – higher than dissatisfaction with the protection offered by the government (39%), email providers (33%), telecommunications companies (31%) and online marketplaces (29%).
The survey also found people had seen or been targeted by a scam via emails (58%), texts (53%) and calls (47%). About one in six people (17%) said they had seen or been targeted by a scam on social media, compared with one in seven (14%) for shopping websites and one in 10 (10%) for search engines.
In total, just under eight in 10 people (79%) said they had seen or been targeted by a scam online. Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest fraud has increased by 36% compared with pre-pandemic levels.
According to Which?, one victim – a 75-year-old woman – lost over £30,000 in 2020 to a potential cryptocurrency scam,…
