32 percent of shoppers financial credentials stolen, Kaspersky finds

The report called “From festive fun to password panic: Managing money online this Christmas also shows that out of the 32% whose financial credentials were compromised, a quarter of them had never got their money back. Factors that can potentially put people’s finances at risk include the difficulty in controlling payment credentials’ after they have been used on different ecommerce platforms and the variety of payment methods available.

More than half of people (54%) are most worried about their financial credentials being accessed by cybercriminals. However, 36% of respondents have forgotten or not even tried to remember the websites and apps where they have shared their financial details.

As consumers try to ensure their payment credentials are easy to find and remember, 20% even prefer to store them on devices. This can make submitting credentials more convenient when people do their shopping online, so they do not have to worry about forgetting them. However, if the device is lost or stolen, a user is at risk of not only losing their personal data but also their money, because someone could access their bank account if they found the respective credentials in the smartphone’s notes.

The wide range of digital payment methods gives shoppers the freedom to choose their favorite way of buying goods or services. The most preferable method is still debit and credit cards, direct transfers from bank accounts, and e-wallets, eg PayPal. However, other payment methods are growing in popularity. Frequent shopping allows people to collect points via loyalty programs and use them when revisiting a retailer to buy more. This has helped to raise the popularity of contactless device payments, such as PayPass and Apple Pay with a third of shoppers (31%) using them regularly. Also, 46% of those surveyed would make even more online payments if they felt their credentials were better protected.