Women are less likely to have experienced a financial scam than men, according to research from interactive investor.

The investment platform’s most recent Great British Retirement Survey 2020 of more than 12,000 UK adults revealed notable gender differences when it comes to the susceptibility of financial scams.

interactive investor’s findings showed that 9% of women had experienced a financial scam compared to 15% of men, while a third of men (35%) admitted to having been the victim of investment fraud, compared to 22% of women. However, when it comes to current account fraud, more women (27%) indicated they had fallen victim compared to men (21%).

“Men might be more susceptible to investment fraud because, on average at least, they tend to invest more,” commented interactive investor personal finance campaigner, Myron Jobson. “Whatever the reason, it is important to take care with your money and look out for the warning signs.

“The city watchdog reports that it received over 24,000 reports of unauthorised activity and published over 1,000 consumer alerts in 2020 – an 82% increase on the previous year, illustrating that the COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm for unscrupulous individuals.

“With the COVID crisis still ongoing, the worry is the internal alarm bells warning people of ‘too good to be true’ money making opportunities is increasingly becoming muted among those who have suffered a loss of income out of desperation.”

A total 13% of the survey’s respondents revealed they had fallen victim to financial scams, which increased to 18% in the 72 to 77 age category, and 20% amongst those aged over 77.

interactive investor suggested that tackling the scourge of financial scams continues to be high up the agenda for the FCA, which is set to publish work on clone firm investment scams as part of its ScamSmart campaign tomorrow.

“The FCA has also had its sights on misleading advertising of high-risk investment products,” Jobson added. “The regulator quite rightly banned the mass marketing of mini bonds to retail investors, and more recently, issued a warning over the risks of investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets like Bitcoin.

“The allure of these high-risk products is compounded by the low interest rate environment which has wreaked havoc on saving rates. But the high-risk nature of these products is not something that is easily understood.”

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