At least 41% of users who lost their money as the result of financial cyber-fraud failed to get a single cent returned to them.
This is according to a Kaspersky consumer security risks survey conducted by B2B International.
In theory, even if scammers have managed to steal money from an e-banking or e-payment account, that cash may be returned by the bank or as a result of legal proceedings.
However, the B2B International survey shows that success is far from guaranteed. Only 45% of users who suffered through online fraud were fully compensated. A further 14% recovered part of the stolen sum, but the remaining 41% of victims were left with nothing.
According to the reports of 33% of victims, the money was most often irretrievable if it had been stolen during an e-payment operation. In 17% of cases the money disappeared during e-banking sessions, 13% of the victims were the customers of online stores.
Banks and online stores return money to their customers more often than, for example, e-pay systems: in general only 12% of online customers received full compensation for losses incurred from malicious attacks, but for banking customers the figure climbs to 15%.
One in 10 respondents were lucky enough to get all their money back. There is also a noticeably high level of ‘bad debt’ – 6% of online stores customers, 4% of online banking clients and 4% of e-pay systems users reported irretrievable loss of money.
At the same time many users remain confident that their transactions are reliably protected by the owners of these services. The results of the B2B International survey show that 45% of respondents believe the bank is responsible for paying back any money lost during online operations and 42% of those surveyed think the bank should provide free security tools to safeguard money transfers.