The same younger respondents are also the least receptive to the security messaging banks commonly use to reassure customers. The survey covered 7.029 consumers across the UK, the US, Sweden, Australia, India, Brazil, and Singapore, including 1.005 UK adults, and was conducted online in August 2026.
Account takeover and wider fraud exposure by age
In the UK, 21.0% of respondents aged 18–24 said they had personally experienced account takeover, compared with 2.1% of those aged 65 and over. When cases affecting someone close to them were included, the figures rose to 39.0% and 3.8%, respectively.
A similar pattern appeared across other fraud types once the experiences of family and friends were counted. QR-code and payment-link scams were reported by 44.8% of UK 18–24s, against 4.3% of over-65s. For romance scams, the figures were 55.2% and 10.3%. Across multiple fraud types, the age gap in the UK was wider than in any of the other six markets surveyed.
A disconnect in security messaging
The findings point to a gap between the age group reporting more exposure and the messages designed to reassure customers. Only 5.7% of UK 18–24s selected ‘we are constantly monitoring for threats to your account’ as the bank message that appealed to them most. Among over-65s, the figure was 28.6%, a fivefold difference. Younger respondents instead favoured ‘we stop fraud before it reaches you’, chosen by 36.2%. That message is framed around prevention outcomes rather than ongoing monitoring.
According to Yogesh Patel, Chief Technology Officer, Outseer, the need for fraud prevention education among older customers is widely recognised, but the data suggests younger people also require support. It was also added that banks could rethink both how fraud protection is delivered and how it is communicated.
Fraud protection was the first-ranked reason UK consumers gave for choosing a new bank or card provider, with 60.4% placing it among their top three decision factors. A third of respondents (33.1%) said a fraud or scam experience had reduced their trust in their provider. Among 18–24s, this rose to 42.9%. In addition, 33.7% said they would move some or all of their money if their bank failed to protect them.
Balancing security and checkout friction
The survey also highlights the tension between security and convenience in digital payments. Nearly two-thirds (63.7%) of UK respondents had abandoned an online checkout at least once because security checks were too slow or confusing, a figure that rose to 81.9% among 18–24s. At the same time, 76.9% reacted positively to their bank using background technology to verify that they were the person making a payment.
The announcement noted that customers tend to accept familiar friction but respond poorly to friction that is new, unexpected, or unnecessary. Outseer’s proposed approach is for banks to carry out more risk assessment in the background, combining behavioural biometrics with device, transaction, and contextual signals. Friction would then be introduced only when the level of risk justifies it.
For UK banks and card issuers, the results suggest that age-based assumptions about fraud vulnerability may need revisiting. Trust, retention, and checkout conversion all appear to depend on how visible security measures are and how they are explained to customers.
