Industry reports from across the world show that fraud continued to increase in 2023. The attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated as fraudsters become more experienced and take new technologies into use when fraud is becoming increasingly lucrative for the fraudsters.
Lately media reports have focused on elderly being a targeted group when it comes to fraud. Looking at the findings from this survey, it also seems that the elderly express more concern when conducting digital transactions. However, the youngest cohort, 18-24 years, is the second most worried group, according to our survey.
“It might not come as a surprise that the oldest respondents express concern. However, it might be counter-intuitive that the youngest group express more concern as well. The explanation behind this could be that the elderly often perceive themselves as vulnerable while young adults, grown up with the online world, also acknowledge that there are risks. At the same time, the age groups in-between might be the ones with the highest degree of self-confidence”, says Helena Wall, Head of Fraud Intelligence and Awareness at Nordea.
Looking into whether nationality plays a role when measuring concern about digital transactions, the Finns seem to be the less concerned while the Danes, followed closely by the Swedes and the Norwegians, seem to be the most concerned in the Nordics. In Finland roughly 4 out of 10 (41%) completely disagree with the claim, while 1 out of 4 (26%) of the Swedes ticked the same box.
“We can see that there are geographical differences when it comes to feeling secure doing online transactions. In Sweden there has been a lot of media attention on fraud and cases where people have been defrauded, followed by politicians asking for banks and other societal actors to do more when it comes to prevent and stop fraud. In Finland we have seen less media coverage attention while more in Denmark”, says Helena Wall.
Looking at the second question touching upon fraud: if you have sufficient knowledge to avoid being defrauded – the Swedes and the Danes to a larger extent agree with that claim than the Finns and the Norwegians do. In Denmark roughly 1 out of 5 (22%) agrees completely, while only 1 out of 7 (14%) ticked the same box in Finland and Norway. When you look at age in the Nordics, the elderly are less confident than the younger generation is. Around 1 out of 5 (19%) between 18-44 agrees completely while around 1 out of 7 between 65-80 does the same. And looking at gender, men to a larger extent agree with the claim than women.
“Here we can see that in countries with broad media attention on fraud and several informational and awareness campaigns about how to avoid being defrauded, there also seems to be a higher degree of awareness. When it comes to differences when looking at age or gender, the findings might not come as a surprise as the older generations tend to be less confident than say a man 30+ years old ”, says Helena Wall.
Our survey, The Nordic Pulse, was conducted in all the four Nordic markets, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, where Nordea operates and roughly 1,000 respondents, mirroring randomly and representative selected samples, have been asked in each market.
Our survey, The Nordic Pulse, was conducted in all the four Nordic markets, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, where Nordea operates and roughly 1,000 respondents, mirroring randomly and representative selected samples, have been asked in each market.
Read all about the survey