Under-50s 'Slack' When Suffering Card Fraud

Younger Britons are slack when it comes to reporting credit card theft, new analysis has revealed.

Financial services firm Saga has found in new research that the attitudes of different age groups to fraud differs markedly. Two thirds of theft victims aged under 50 told the researchers that they reported their cards being stolen straight away, which compares poorly to the 78 per cent of those aged over 50.

In addition, younger people were also found to be likely to carry multiple cards, making fraud detection more difficult. Usage is different, too: more than a fifth of 18-35 year olds, for example, used their "second" cards less than once a year, compared to just 16 per cent of other age groups.

Andrew Goodsell, the group's chief executive, commented: "Our study shows a worrying trend that men and younger people are generally less concerned about ID fraud than their older counterparts, and are not taking the steps to prevent fraudulent activity.

"There are a number of reasons why this could be happening - the younger generation are obviously more gung-ho and do not think that this kind of thing will happen to them, and also if something does ensue, they may be relying on financial institutions to reimburse them."

Saga's figures have been released in the wake of research from payments association APACS, which found that card fraud has increased by 25 per cent over the past year in the UK.