Young Britons far more likely to be scammed online

SquareTrade Europe has published research suggesting younger Britons are far more likely to be scammed online than older people.

The study found UK adults aged 25 to 34 were three times as likely to be scammed as those over 65.

The survey of 15,000 adults across Europe, including 3,000 in the UK, pointed to a sharp gap between how younger people view online risk and how often they encounter it. While 61% of Britons aged 25 to 34 said they had been personally targeted by a scam, the figure for over-65s was 20%.

Among 18 to 24-year-olds, 59% said they had been targeted. Yet 28% in that age group said the person they worried most about online was a grandparent, compared with 9% who said they worried most about themselves.

Investment fraud

The findings suggest the risk shifts as younger adults begin to build savings. Among UK scam victims aged 25 to 34, 21% said they had fallen for fake investment scams, including fraudulent crypto schemes, bogus trading platforms and NFT-related offers.

That was double the 11% recorded among victims aged 18 to 24. The average loss per fake investment scam was £414.

Social media and messaging services were major routes for contact, accounting for 41% of scam encounters among UK under-25s, compared with 7% through email.

Instagram and TikTok each accounted for 11% of scam encounters among younger users. The study also identified fake giveaways, fraudulent influencer promotions and gaming scams among the common forms of fraud affecting younger people.

The research also linked wider digital exposure to financial harm after device theft. Among UK consumers whose accounts were hacked, 32% said the breach began with a stolen smartphone.

AI concerns

The survey found Britain was the most concerned European market about the effect of artificial intelligence on fraud. Some 49% of UK respondents said AI was making scams more convincing and harder to detect, ahead of respondents in France, Spain and Germany.

Another 38% said the technology was advancing faster than the tools available to stop it. Among Britons aged 18 to 24, 20% said they had encountered deepfake videos used in scam contexts, and 12% said they had received AI-generated voice calls impersonating someone they knew.

A quarter of all UK respondents said they would struggle to tell the difference between a real video call and a deepfake. This points to broader unease about how quickly fraud tactics are changing and how well consumers can judge online authenticity.

Alex Wood, Counter-fraud Advisor and SquareTrade campaign partner, said: "Fraud in this country is evolving fast. Social media has given criminals a direct line into the lives of millions of young people, and AI is making every scam more convincing, more personalised, and harder to identify. Fake investment schemes can now be generated in minutes. Phishing messages are flawless. Voice clones are good enough to fool your own family. This is not a niche problem - it is a crisis that is scaling by the month, and the people being hit hardest are the ones everyone assumed were safe. That is why I am working with SquareTrade - to make sure people understand how the threat is changing and to show that solutions exist that can close the gap between how we live and how protected we are."

Shame factor

The study also examined how victims responded after being deceived. In the UK, 42% of scam victims said they blamed themselves, almost the same as the 43% who blamed the scammer.

Britain was the only market in the survey where self-blame and anger at the criminal were almost level. Among UK adults aged 25 to 34 who had experienced a scam, 44% said they blamed themselves, 37% said they felt panicked, and 34% said they felt stupid or naïve.

Nearly one in five in that group said they would be too ashamed to tell anyone. Among scammed 18 to 24-year-olds, 10% said they told an AI chatbot about the experience, close to the 11% who said they told nobody.

Money muling

The survey also found evidence that some younger adults are being drawn into criminal activity. Among UK 18 to 24-year-olds, 42% said they had been approached to let someone use their bank account to move money in return for payment.

Some 5.6% said they had agreed to do so, rising to 7% among 25 to 34-year-olds. The practice, known as money muling, can expose participants to criminal penalties as well as financial loss.

Aditya Hindocha, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at SquareTrade Europe, said: "The UK is one of Europe's most tech-forward markets, but the risk landscape is evolving just as quickly. It is concerning to see how wide the protection gap is becoming for consumers, especially younger people whose finances, identities and day-to-day lives are increasingly managed online. While keeping pace with emerging threats can be challenging, consumers should not feel they have to tackle these risks alone. Only around one in eight Brits currently have any digital protection coverage. That is why SquareTrade has developed Digital Protection - combining device protection with end-to-end digital protection - from proactive scam detection to recovery and financial reimbursement - in one product for the first time. Our ambition is to make this level of protection available to British consumers through retail and telco partners they trust."