More than seven in 10 – or 71% of – fraud victims felt the experience left them with a higher level of stress, while two-fifths (60%) said it had a negative overall impact on their mental health when surveyed by Which?.
Meanwhile, just 50% of the 1,000 UK adults surveyed who lost money to fraud reported that the experience had had a damaging impact on their finances.
Many still felt angry and had trust issues following the fraud, with other lingering emotions including little pleasure in doing things, feeling depressed and difficulties with sleeping.
Following their fraud experience, victims felt higher levels of all those emotions when compared to the rest of the UK population.
When it comes to reimbursement, just over half (55%) of the respondents were able to get all of their money back and one in seven (13%) received a partial repayment of the money they lost.
However, while getting the money back is clearly not enough to put things right in some cases, a fifth (22%) of people had the double blow of not being reimbursed a penny by their bank either.
The unforgiving nature of being scammed is reflected in the fact that people with existing mental health issues were less likely to get their money back than those without a diagnosis. Just under half (45%) of adults with a diagnosed mental health issue were successful with their full reimbursement, compared to 60% for those without.
Scam complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) may have reached their highest level, but many are still reluctant in some cases to report the problem to their bank. The emotion of feeling too embarrassed was the case for one in seven and being too overwhelmed stopped 13% of adults.
Men were also more likely than women to not inform authorities like Action Fraud.
As of 7 October, the maximum amount you can claim from being scammed out of money will be reduced from its previous planned amount of £415,000 to £85,000, as announced by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) earlier this month.
The regulator claimed the changes would still help 99% of claimants’ cases, but the consumer champion slammed the move as “outrageous”.
‘Research lays bare long-lasting mental health impact’
Rocio Concha, Which?‘s director of policy and advocacy, said: “Our research lays bare the long-lasting emotional impact fraud can have for victims and shows why mandatory reimbursement rules are desperately needed to help ease the unfair emotional and financial burden on those who fall victim to increasingly sophisticated scams.
“It’s outrageous that the PSR has caved in to pressure from payment firms and ministers and slashed the reimbursement limit – even though its own research found that doing so will inflict even greater psychological harm on victims and reduce incentives for financial firms to prevent fraud.”
Concha added: “If the Government is serious about tackling fraud, it must support the regulator in maintaining the £415,000 reimbursement limit and ensuring the new system of mandatory reimbursement takes effect as planned on 7 October.”
