Around 39% of families have encountered financial fraud over the past three years and just 24% of them got their funds back, a survey conducted by LocalCircles said on Tuesday, as reported by news agency PTI.
The largest group of 23% of respondents in the survey showed to have encountered credit or debit card fraud while 13% indicated fraud by buying, selling, and classified site clients.
According to the survey, 13% were defrauded by websites that took money for products that were never delivered, 10% reported ATM card fraud, 10% reported bank account fraud, and 16% reported other types of fraud.
"The data shows 30 per cent of those surveyed had one member in the family who had been a victim of financial fraud while 9 per cent indicated that multiple members in their family have been subject to financial fraud in the last three years. Of the remaining 57 per cent were thankful they or their family members had escaped such an experience and 4 per cent gave no clear response," online survey firm LocalCircles said in the report.
According to the company, the survey received nearly 32,000 responses from families in 331 Indian districts, with 66% male and 34% female respondents.
Approximately 39% of respondents came from tier 1, 35% from tier 2, and 26% came from tier 3, 4, and rural districts.
When asked if the victims could get their money back, 24% of the 11,305 responses indicated that they could do so, while 70% of respondents were unable to resolve their complaints.
According to the data, 6% filed a complaint with the authorities and received the funds, while 18% filed a complaint with the designated platform or entity and received the funds.
"However, 41 per cent indicated that the 'matter is still pending', 17 per cent feel helpless stating 'there was nowhere to go', 12 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they decided to not even file a complaint and 6 per cent gave no clear response," the report said.
While the percentage of families reporting financial frauds has slightly decreased in 2023 compared to 2022 (the previous three years), the percentage of families reporting credit and debit card frauds has increased from 18% last year to 23% now, according to a comparison study.
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