Barclays launches £10m UK digital safety campaign

London, Bristol and Birmingham have the largest gaps in public resilience to fraud scams, according to the new national Digital Safety Index based on a Barclays survey of 6,000 people across the UK.

The East Midlands emerged as the most resilient region for digital safety scores, followed by Yorkshire and Humber, and North West England.

The data shows that London and Bristol also top the tables for the most reported cases of fraud, with Manchester joining them in the top three. Newcastle reported fewer cases of fraud and scams, while Liverpool reported a particularly high number of impersonation scams.

Londoners with a master’s degree and aged 25 to 34 are the UK’s most vulnerable group, with men slightly more at risk than women, the data shows. People in this age group are twice as likely to be victims of online fraud than older generations, the data shows.

Nearly a fifth of people who have been a victim of a fraud or scam take no action to boost their digital defences as a result, and only 17% of people in the UK can correctly identify basic digital threats such as social media messages intended to trick users into sharing personal details or downloading malware.

Barclays UK chief executive officer Ashok Vaswani is calling for the public, police and businesses across the UK to unite and tackle this growing issue of public concern. 

The Barclays-led digital safety campaign is aimed at raising the public’s awareness of financial fraud risks, and keeping them safe in the digital age with information, tools and tips.

This initiative comes as the latest crime figures show 5.6 million fraud and cyber offences in the UK make up half of all recorded crime and cost the UK £11bn. But these numbers could be even higher, as new Barclays research reveals a quarter of people in the UK have experienced a cyber-fraud or scam in the past three years, 18% of them more than once, suggesting that many cyber crimes go unreported.

Under the initiative, Barclays has become the first UK high street bank to give customers greater control over when, where and how their debit cards work. Customers will be able to instantly switch the function for remote purchases on and off, as well as set their own daily ATM withdrawal limits on their Barclays mobile banking app.

The campaign also includes an online quiz for people to assess their own digital safety level and get tips on how to strengthen their defences, along with a multi-channel national advertising campaign to alert people to the risk of fraud.