Almost Half of UK Consumers have Experienced Mobile Fraud

80% of UK consumers favour pre-emptive anti-fraud measures as a must in mobile apps.

Mobile end users are keenly aware of the growing security, fraud and privacy threats when they use mobile apps and demand that mobile brands and enterprises step forward to provide real defences to these threats.

This is according to Appdome, a specialist in mobile defence, which has announced the UK results of its fourth UK Consumer Expectations of Mobile App Security Survey.

The voice of the UK consumer was clear – not only do they demand the protections included in the OWASP MAS standard, but the survey data reveals why UK brands must improve the state of the art of mobile app protections as the UK mobile commerce economy is expected to hit £100bn in 2025.

“Mobile is dominant in everything we do – shopping, gaming, dating and more. Consumer awareness and concern of fear of fraud is at their highest level in our four years of research, and UK consumers tell us they will vote with their wallets and shop elsewhere if they are not protected,” Chris Roeckl, Chief Product Officer at Appdome, said. “It’s vital that mobile brands continue to raise the bar for mobile app protections.”

The 2024 survey data adds to the 120,000+ consumer voices gathered from 12 countries over the past four years, making the Consumer Expectations of Mobile App Security Survey the largest single collection of consumer data on mobile app security, privacy, anti-fraud, and other attack vectors.

Mobile applications have taken centre stage in consumers’ daily life. Mobile app protection – consisting of mobile app security, malware defence, fraud prevention, and privacy – is now critical to the way consumers choose and use mobile apps, and also critical in whether they choose to stay with and promote a brand.

“Cyber professionals work tirelessly to keep applications, networks, transactions, and users safe while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other attacks increase,” said Tom Tovar, Co-creator and CEO of Appdome. “UK consumers continue their march upward in recognising the importance of this work, and it’s clear that they overwhelmingly support broadening cyber and anti-fraud measures inside brand and enterprise mobile apps everywhere.”

Several upward trends are revealed in the 2024 UK data, including consumers’ increasing use of mobile apps, their awareness of mobile attack vectors, the growing expectation of protection in apps and consumers’ willingness to be brand advocates if protected. The top stats as reported in the UK survey include:

Fear exposure: 41% (four-in-10) report first-hand experience or second-hand awareness of mobile fraud, malware or a cyber-attack and 62% of UK consumers declared mobile fraud their number one concern.

Fraud resolution: 80% favour pre-emptive anti-fraud measures as a must in mobile apps.

Social engineering: 27% report first-hand experience or second-hand awareness of social engineering scams, and 59% of consumers cite brand impersonation scams as their top social engineering risk.

Romance scams stand out: Brits are highly concerned about romance scams, with almost 31% stating concerns – 17% more than the global average.

Mobile vs web: 56% of people in the UK now prefer using mobile apps over other channels to buy goods and services, growing by 14% since 2022. And 65% say that their use of mobile apps has increased over the past 12 months alone.

Total Protection: 97% of UK consumers now believe that protecting their privacy when using mobile apps is essential, with 85% of consumers seeking out information about the security of a mobile app before using it.

Features vs. security: 85% now say security and privacy are equal to or more important than features in mobile apps.

Fear inaction: The number of UK consumers who fear “developers don’t care” about protecting the mobile app has increased by 171%, topping the four-year survey at 1 in 4 of all respondents.

Consumers maintained strong perspectives on these top trends in the 2024 survey:

Rewarding consumer brands: Consumers can be won over by better protection and even become advocates, with 92% stating that they’d be willing to promote security-conscious brands with visible forms of advocacy.

Consequences for insecure apps: Over half (54%) of respondents said they have already deleted or stopped using a mobile app due to security or privacy concerns. Elsewhere, 63% of consumers are likely or very likely to stop using a mobile app if it fails to protect them or their data, and 71% of people will abandon a mobile brand after a breach.

“It’s clear that consumers are taking mobile brand promises and the emerging threat of AI attacks seriously,” said Alan Bavosa, VP of Security Products at Appdome. “AI-based attacks will take mobile app risks to a new level, and mobile brands and enterprises need to change their cyber delivery models to meet the accelerating threat head-on and maintain user trust and engagement on mobile platforms.”