Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

During lockdown more consumers have been turning to online shopping. Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, received over 16,000 reports about online fraud during the lockdown totalling over £16m. Consumers report buying mobile phones (19%), vehicles (22%), and electronics (10%) on sites such as eBay (18%), Facebook (18%), and Gumtree (10%) only for the items to never arrive. Considering reinforcing to citizens:

• The prevalence of online fraud
• Actions to make online shopping safer e.g.
  • choose a trusted retailers or build confidence in the retailer by researching other consumers’ experiences
  • create accounts that have strong passwords that are not identical to email accounts
  • be aware of scam email messages offering deals and don’t click on links that you are unsure about
  • use a credit card to pay as it offers more payment protection
• What they should do if they think they have become a victim of online shopping fraud e.g.
  • note the website’s address, close the browser, report to a consumer fraud advice service
  • monitor bank transactions if payment details have been submitted to the site
  • contact your bank about any unrecognised transactions, however small