Three in five Americans have been the victim of a digital crime

A new Ipsos/Aura poll finds three in five Americans say they have been the victim of a digital crime. Even more people (67%) are concerned about digital crimes. While more than half of Americans have been the victim of a digital crime, reassuringly, nearly four in five victims report that their crime was fully resolved (78%). The vast majority of those that had their crime resolved were able to do so within a month (86%), and few victims believe the crime they experienced will never be solved (9%).

The most common forms of digital crimes Americans experience is malware or some other virus (34%) and unauthorized use of a credit or debit card (34%). Second tier forms of crime include losing account access due to hacking (11%) and online impersonation (9%). Additionally, nearly a quarter of victims who have experienced multiple crimes (23%) consider malware and other viruses the most impactful digital crime. Malware can be especially damaging because it can completely lock a user out of their device, and many hackers will hold the device for ransom.

Among Americans who are victims of multiple digital crimes, unauthorized use of credit/debit cards is deemed the most impactful digital crime (39%). Americans who have experienced multiple digital crimes perhaps consider unauthorized card use the most harmful because victims of this type of crime rack up an average of $8,000+ in unauthorized credit/debit use.

Beyond monetary impacts, digital crimes can also have emotional impacts on their victims. Following a digital crime, more than half of victims report feeling angry (56%), surprised (51%), and disgusted (51%). Other emotions victims felt include anxiousness (47%) and being scared (35%).

Americans are aware of online behaviors that may be considered unsafe, but often fall short of avoiding these risky behaviors. For example, 91% of Americans report knowing that using the same password on multiple accounts is risky, but nearly a quarter (23%) say they do so frequently or often. Likewise, many Americans do not take extra measures to protect themselves from digital crimes. Less than half of Americans (45%) report that they frequently or often use multi-factor authentication and 37% reuse passwords that they created more than five years ago. Lastly, only three in five Americans (62%) say they frequently or often change their password after they have been notified that their account password has been breached.

About the Study

This Aura Poll was conducted October 17 - Octoberber 28, 2022, by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel® – a division of Ipsos. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,009 adults ages 18-65 from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii who was interviewed online in English.

The survey was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, which is the largest and most well-established online panel that is representative of the adult US population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in these households are invited to join and participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®. For those potential panel members who do not already have internet access, Ipsos provides a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methods, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and provide fully representative online samples to the research community.

The study was conducted in English. The data for the total sample was weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, and household income. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2022 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The weighting categories were as follows:

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+)
• Race-Ethnicity (White/Non-Hispanic, Black/Non-Hispanic, Other/Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races/Non-Hispanic)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan Status (Metro, Non-Metro)
• Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor or higher)
• Household Income (under $25K, $25K-$49,999, $50K-$74,999, $75K-$99,999, $100K-$149,999, $150K and over)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.25 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.11. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Jennifer Berg
Director
Public Affairs
[email protected]  

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