Gartner: Financial fraud concerns turn some away from online shopping

Consumers in the U.S. are changing their online behavior due to concerns about the safety of their personal data. Fear of fraud is stopping 15% of those surveyed from shopping online, according to a recent report from Gartner.

by Helen Leggatt

Around 7.5% of U.S. adults lost out financially as a result of fraud last year, reports Gartner in its recently published report entitled "2008 Data Breaches and Financial Crimes Scare Consumers Away".

The fear of having personal data stolen is causing changes in online behavior, with over half of respondents (59%) saying they have changed their online shopping activity.

Many (71%) are more cautious about where they shop online, 67% are more attentive about providing financial and personal information to websites, 30% shop less and just over a quarter (28%) abandon a purchase if they are redirected to another site on which to enter payment information.

Fifteen percent have stopped shopping online altogether, such are their concerns.

Data breaches were the top cause of financial fraud, found Gartner, with an increase of 47% last year compared with 2007. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 78 financial institutions were affected, too.

Almost 20% of those surveyed by Gartner said their losses were due to data breaches compared with 16% to the theft of their wallet or purse, 13% to phishing attacks, 9% to Internet auction fraud and 8% to someone they knew having access to their information. One in five had no idea how their data was stolen.

Tags: data breach, financial fraud, Gartner, identity theft, Identity Theft Resource Center, Internet auction fraud, online shopping, phishing