The Paypers

The report examines how weaponised content is moving the Fraud Economy forward, as well as consumer perception of content fraud based on a survey of more than 1,200 U.S consumers.

Scams – defined as any content created and used to perpetrate fraud, such as listings for products that are never shipped – are the foundation of the fraud economy. This global, interconnected network of online abuse hinges on conning consumers, and fraudulent content is the go-to vehicle for spreading fake information, committing financial fraud, and conducting phishing attacks, according to Sift.

The other most common blocked content fraud types include irrelevant content (22%, not related to the topic at hand), toxic (18%, includes foul language, harassment, hate speech, or bullying) and commercial (1%, solicitations against terms of service).

Decreased transaction volumes, new digital shopping methods and services, and rising attack volumes across many markets throughout the pandemic contributed to a 77% surge in blocked content fraud in Q1 2020 over the same period in 2019.

Other key findings from the survey include:

Content fraud encounters: approximately 27% of consumers surveyed report running across fraudulent content on a daily or weekly basis. According to respondents, the most common types of fraudulent content encountered are spam (51%) and scams (50%) with misinformation and 'fake news' rounding out the top three (43%).
COVID-19 vaccine misinformation: 50% of surveyed consumers say that they’ve come across COVID-19 scams or misinformation. Within this group, 61% say the scams encountered involved misinformation about the efficacy or side effects of COVID-19 vaccines; 61% say they involved misinformation about vaccines containing tracking technology; and 28% came across fraudulent vaccine cards or passports.
Fraudulent content: more than half of consumers surveyed say they would stop shopping at a business if malicious content was discovered on the brand’s website. Specifically, 56% say they would stop using the site or service if fake or misleading content was discovered, while 54% say they would stop using it if they were scammed into sharing personal information.
Top online places for scams and spam: those surveyed also identified the places online where they encounter the most content fraud. These include social networking sites (61%), classifieds (28%), dating sites (24%), marketplaces (21%), and crowdfunding sites (15%).

Scams accounted for 59% of blocked user-generated malicious content within Sift's network in Q1 2021, report finds