Rising cyberscam losses expose gaps in EU response

A landmark study on cyberscams in Europe released this week has found that 75% of adults encountered a scam in the past year.

While 71% of respondents said they were confident in recognizing scams, 8% of those exposed went on to interact with scammers. Some 16% of parents said their children had been approached by a scammer.

Across the European countries surveyed, around €50 billion ($57.7 billion) has been lost to scams in the last 12 months, according to the study by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) , a nonprofit organization that polled around 22,200 people across 15 European countries.

Of those who interacted with a scam, 22% suffered a financial or data loss, yet only 39% reported the incident to authorities. The average financial loss was $2,735 (€2,369), with the highest average losses recorded in Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium. GASA's report estimated scam losses in Germany were about €10.6 billion over the past 12 months.

Some 35% of those who reported their losses said their money was reimbursed by the organization they reported it to.

"Scam avoidance is largely driven by habitual behaviors, such as ignoring unsolicited messages, rather than intervention," the GASA report noted.

"Half of victims only realize they have been scammed after external intervention or after losing money," it added.

Although the GASA report did not identify how many European victims were targeted from Southeast Asia, the region has become a major hub for cyberscamming in recent years .