PlayStation 5’s VS Smartwatches: How Many of These Items are Missed out on Being Bought due to Fraud?

Online fraud can be hard to grasp. It is all over the news these days and many people have some experience with it. But understanding the depth of its impact can be harder to comprehend. Skurio looked at the cost of online fraud and found some interesting data to highlight how big of an issue it is. 

Its research shows the cost of fraud in the UK for 2021 is a staggering £137,000,000,000. The figure is so large it makes it hard to understand just how harmful it is to society. The truth is that every penny wasted on fraud could have been spent on something else.

Money lost to fraud isn’t just devastating to the business or individual who lost it. It is also always away from the national economy. This is bad for things like healthcare and education. As the economy is already under pressure, the extra problems caused by online fraud can be devastating. 

Luckily, there are tools like domain monitoring that can help prevent fraud. A good domain monitoring solution helps businesses and individuals keep their data safe. But implementation of the right tools has to keep up with the increasing threat to online security. 

What can you buy with the money lost to fraud?

It’s helpful to view the figure lost to fraud through everyday items. Over a year, you could buy:

• 49,818,181,818 cups of coffee
• A monthly subscription to Netflix for 22,871,452,420 people
• 20,296,296,296 tickets to the cinema
• 16,117,647,058 family packs of 16 toilet rolls
• 361,477,572 smartwatches
• 304,451,210 PlayStation 5s
• 27,400,000 round the world flight tickets 

These figures are devastating both to customers and businesses. It is easy to imagine how losing so many paying customers could be devastating for a small business. 

Why is online fraud increasing?

The above statistics are revealing and shocking. What makes it worse is the spike in the prevalence of online fraud. According to reporting by the Financial Times, online fraud increased by a third in the UK during the pandemic. Cybercrime has slowly increased over the past decade but the COVID-19 crisis seemed to push this acceleration further. 

A simple reason is the digitalisation of society. Online consumption of goods increased during the pandemic. People started shopping online, using their credit cards and personal details on websites more frequently. The heightened activity lured in fraudsters. Businesses that weren’t using domain monitoring and other security tools often suffered as a consequence. 

Domain monitoring to combat fraud

It’s not feasible to hope fraud will go away entirely. It is important to look for those preventive tools. But you should also take measures to be on your guard when things go wry. A good domain monitoring tool can help identify threats in time and give you tools to respond to fraud if it happens. 

Domain monitoring scours the dark corners of the web to find stolen information. When fraudsters access personal data, they naturally avoid showcasing it. Instead, they turn to the dark web to sell and use this information. With domain monitoring, businesses can see if their websites have been copied or compromised. You can almost view it as Google for finding compromised or leaked data.

What else should you do? 

Domain monitoring is a powerful tool to use. Businesses should include it in their data protection toolkit. It can help in ensuring data isn’t lost to fraudsters and if it is, they can react to it quicker. But they also need to ensure data is protected in the first place. Encryption and strong data security are important to make sure customer data is safe. 

On an individual level, people need to stay vigilant on the Internet. Copycat websites are one of the ways fraudsters get their hands on data. These are websites pretending to be reputable brand websites. You might think you are browsing an online store when you are actually on a fraudulent site. It’s important to make sure you always confirm the site is real.

As password security continues to be a major problem in cybersecurity, it needs to be something you should keep in mind. You should remember to change your password regularly and opt for two-factor authentication whenever possible. 

Online fraud is something that can happen to anyone. You could be one step away from losing your hard-earned money to a fraudster if you don’t stay vigilant. Luckily, businesses have technologies like domain monitoring at their disposal to help keep data safe.