More than one-third (35%) of banking customers reported experiencing at least one type of fraud in the past year, according to new data released by J.D. Power this week. That figure increased to 47% for customers under the age of 40. Among those considered to be “financially overextended,” that figure rose to 50%. The most common occurrences of fraud were someone making an unauthorized purchase with a customer’s credit card, someone making an unauthorized purchase with a customer’s debit card and making a purchase with a P2P payment app that turned out to be a scam.
Forty-four percent of respondents said they have checked their bank statements in the past 30 days for suspicious activity, while 32% said they received alerts about account activity. Thirty-six percent said their primary bank has prompted them to review their security settings in the past 30 days—though among consumers who did receive a prompt, well over half (64%) said that the instructions were clear and led to them feeling comfortable with their security settings.
“As overall financial health remains stuck in neutral, customers are going to start basing their banking decisions on something other than financial literacy or new product offerings,” the survey authors noted. “Chief among those factors is the security of the accounts. An instance of fraud can send shockwaves through a customer’s account. It’s time for more banks to not just make it a priority, but relentlessly communicate to the customer what they are doing to help.”
