Americans Say One Thing But Likely to do Another When it Comes to Online Scams

From a PC Tools News Release:

PC Tools, in collaboration with the Ponemon Institute, today announced the findings of its online scam susceptibility study of 1,858 American consumers. The results of the survey show a clear difference between respondents’ attitudes and predicted behaviors when presented with real-world online scenarios.
“Almost half (47%) of US respondents identified an online survey with a prize as either a scam or an attempt to get you to buy something later. However, when presented with the test scenarios, more than half (55%) of US respondents indicated they would be likely to provide their personal information to redeem a prize after completing an online survey,” said Richard Clooke, Online Security Expert, PC Tools.
While first and third person constructs were tested to minimize the potential “halo effect” that occurs when asking respondents to rate themselves, US respondents indicated they were equally as likely as their friend to provide personal and financial information online in each of the tested scenarios. This is in contrast to respondents in the UK and Australia who indicated that they thought their friend was more likely to provide personal and financial information online in each of the tested scenarios.

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