Updated: Jan. 8, 2023
Countries with Highest Numbers of Online Fraud Victims
In a new research carried out by SEON technology, four countries where identified as the countries with the highest total number of online fraud victims in the world.
The study titled, ‘The Gen-Z Fraud Report: A Global Outlook’ highlights countries that are most vulnerable to crimes in the world, based on a 2020 survey.
Most Vulnerable Countries to Internet Scam
- United States of America
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- India
United States of America
The US ranks first with 465,177 victims. The incredibly high number of online fraud victims in the United States, according to the report, is due to the size of the country's population and economy. The United States, with a population of 329.5 million has a GDP of about $20.95t and a GDP per capita of $63, 593.
United Kingdom
UK ranks second with total 216,633 victims, which about half of the total number of victims in the US. But when compared in relation to their respective populations sizes it shows that more percentage of UK's population fall victims of online fraud than the US, as UK's population is around 20% of the US population.
“While the United Kingdom has less than half the number of victims in the USA, the UK has a population of around 20% that of the United States, suggesting that the United Kingdom has a much bigger internet fraud problem for its relative size.” the survey stated.
Canada
Canada ranks third most vulnerable country to online fraud victims with 5,399 victims, considerably lower than that of the United States and the United Kingdom.
India
Ranking fourth, India has 2, 930 fraud victims, almost half of that of Canada, despite having a population of approximately 1.38 billion. The low number of internet fraud victims in India despite having huge population may be attributed the fact that may of Indian population don’t speak English language.
Factors Responsible for Country's Vulnerability to Online Fraud
1. Language
Some of highly developed countries with high GDPs such as South Korea and Japan were not covered in the survey.
“This is perhaps due to their languages being not as accessible and much less widely spoken or even studied, making them less viable targets for the international fraudster," the report said.
The survey revealed that the countries which were the primary target of online fraudsters are predominantly English-speaking counties as the top four countries are English-speaking countries including India that ranked four, which also holds a very large English-speaking population. This indicates that the lingua franca of the modern fraudsters is English.
2. Population and GDP Size (Size of Economy)
Another factor that appeared to be responsible for the vulnerability of these top countries are the sizes of the populations as well as their GDPs, which suggests that scammers consider the overall population of each country as well as their wealth.
“It is also worth noting that the number of victims in these countries are ranked in the same order as their respective populations and GDPs, suggesting that fraudsters take into account the number of their potential targets as well as their overall wealth, with richer countries being the biggest target," the report noted.
3. Age
Age is also identified as one factors informing the targeted victims of the fraudsters.
According to the report, the age group that was most likely to fall to fraudsters’ tricks are those in the 25-34 age group, as they are the largest group of internet users accounting for 32% of users but in addition to the younger group of 18-24-year-olds, 50% of internet users are under 35.
“This highlights the fact that young people are the most prevalent age group for online activity, though whether this makes them a larger or smaller target is unclear.
“Fraudsters could target younger people as a group as there are more of them online, raising the likelihood of a successful con. However, these people are also the most familiar with the internet and have grown up in a digital world, meaning they are likely much more aware of internet security and common digital threats than many older people, on average," the report stated.