Fraud Opinion Poll

16 February 2022

Pollster Find Out Now and election experts Electoral Calculus have run a poll for the Daily Telegraph on the public's attitudes to fraud. The poll surveyed 2,105 respondents online and was carried out on 14 February 2022.

The poll asked GB residents various questions about fraud.

In summary:

• A clear majority think the government is not doing enough to tackle fraud
• A clear majority think the police are not doing enough to tackle fraud
• Around 9% of people reporting being a fraud victim in the last year - implying around 4 million victims each year
• Most people get at least one scam text message each month
• Most people get at least three scam emails each month

The questions and their responses are given in the sections below.

Q1. How much do you think the government is doing to tackle fraud?

We asked people whether they thought the government was doing enought to tackle fraud.

	All respondents	Con voters	Lab voters	Lib Dem voters
More than enough	1%	1%	0%	0%
About enough	5%	9%	4%	4%
Less than enough	58%	60%	62%	70%
Don't know	33%	28%	31%	25%
Prefer not to say	3%	3%	3%	1%

A clear majority (58%) think the government is not doing enough. Only 6% think the government is doing enough, with many other undecided. Opinion does not vary very much by party preference at the 2019 general election.

Q2. How much do you think the Police are doing to tackle fraud?

We also asked people if they thought the police are doing enough.

	All respondents	Age 18-24	Age 65+
More than enough	1%	0%	1%
About enough	8%	6%	8%
Less than enough	56%	49%	71%
Don't know	32%	39%	19%
Prefer not to say	3%	6%	0%

Another clear majority (56%) of the public think the police are not doing enough to tackle fraud. Only 9% of the public think that they are, with about one third undecided. Among the over-65s, a substantial 71% of people think the police are not doing enough.

Q3. Have you been a victim of fraud in the last twelve months?

We then asked a direct question of each respondent to see if they had been a victim of fraud in the last twelve months.

	All respondents	London	West Midlands
Yes	9%	13%	6%
No	86%	82%	91%
Prefer not to say	5%	6%	3%

A significant number, 9% of the population say they have been a fraud victim in the last year. Extrapolating to all adults in the country, that would suggest over four million fraud crimes each year.

Q4. How many scam (fraudulent) text messages do you receive on your phone every month, if any?

We asked people how many scam text messages they receive every month.

	All respondents	Age 18-24	Age 65+
None	6%	5%	10%
Less than one	12%	13%	10%
One to three	33%	42%	27%
Three to ten	25%	19%	28%
More than ten	13%	10%	16%
Don't know	7%	5%	8%
Prefer not to say	3%	7%	1%

Most people receive at least one scam text message each month, with over one person in three receiving at least three scam texts. That figure rose to 44% for those aged over 65.

Q5. How many scam (fraudulent) email messages do you receive every month, if any?

Finally we asked people how many scam emails they receive each month.

	All respondents	Age 18-24	Age 65+
None	4%	5%	7%
Less than one	7%	7%	8%
One to three	14%	11%	19%
Three to ten	22%	20%	28%
More than ten	40%	43%	29%
Don't know	9%	10%	8%
Prefer not to say	3%	6%	1%

Most people receive at least three scam emails each month, with 40% of people receiving at least ten. Very few people (11%) received less than one scam email each month.

The last three questions were only asked to people who responded 'Yes' to Q3. This was a sample of 328 people (with an effective sample size of 221). Uncertainty in the stated percentages is much higher than usual, because the sample is relatively small.

Q6. You said that you were a victim of fraud in the last twelve months. What type of fraud was it? (If more than one, please think about the largest one)

In this question, we asked people who have already said that they were victims of fraud about what type of fraud they experienced.

	All respondents
Credit/bank card	40%
Internet scam	24%
Other	11%
Text message scam	9%
Fake goods	5%
Identity theft	4%
I have not been a victim of fraud	2%
Doorstop con	1%
Prefer not to say	5%

The most common type of fraud was credit card or bank fraud, with internet scams as the second most common type.

Q7. How much did you lose from the fraud? (If more than one, please think about the largest one)

Next we asked about the size of the loss due to fraud.

	All respondents
Less than £100	41%
Between £100 and £500	26%
Between £500 and £1000	8%
More than £1000	8%
I have not been a victim of fraud	2%
Don't know	3%
Prefer not to say/no reply	13%

The most common amount of loss is less than £100, with most people losing less than £500. But 16% of victims lost more than £500 due to fraud.

Q8. Did you report the fraud to the Police?

Finally we asked fraud victims if they reported the fraud to the Police.

	All respondents
No	66%
Yes	24%
Prefer not to say/no reply	10%

A large majority of fraud victims did not report the fraud to the Police.

Quotes

Chris Holbrook, CEO of Find Out Now: "It's alarming that nearly 1 in 10 of us report being a victim of fraud in the last year. As digital media has grown, so have the opportunities to deceive and steal, and the reliance on consumers' personal vigilance seems an increasingly inadequate approach to solving the problem. I think it's also important to remember that many businesses are also victimised by imposters, leaving them with the consumer service headache and trashed reputations."

Martin Baxter, CEO of Electoral Calculus: "Our poll shows that fraud is quite widespread and the public don't think the government and police are doing enough about it. There is a dangerous disconnect between people's experiences and the criminal justice system which is perceived as ignoring this substantial problem."

Technical Details

Find Out Now polled 2,105 GB adults online on 14 February 2022. The sample was weighted to be representative by gender, age, social grade, other demographics and past voting patterns. Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus are both members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules.

Full data tables are here.