OXIL urges safeguarding shift as scam victims stay silent

OXIL has published research arguing that fraud prevention should shift towards a safeguarding approach. The study found that most people who receive suspected scam messages do not report them.

It found that 89% of respondents had received what they believed to be a scam attempt, while 71% did not try to report it. Among confirmed victims, 93% said the effects went beyond financial loss.

The findings point to emotional harm as well as monetary damage. Among victims, 28% blamed themselves, 23% felt embarrassed and 22% lost money they could not recover.

The research also suggested that scam exposure cuts across age groups. Adults in their twenties were identified as the most likely to be defrauded, while older adults were the most likely to feel shame after becoming victims.

Reporting gap

A central argument in the research is that fraud is treated differently from other crimes because victims are often expected to prevent it themselves. This, OXIL argues, can leave people reluctant to come forward after an incident.

Alice Taylor, senior scam and fraud researcher at Oxil Research, set out that case in detail.

"Fraud is the only crime type where we expect victims to carry the burden of prevention. We tell people to be 'more careful', 'use common sense', or 'do more training', but you can't train someone to be safe. Vulnerabilities come from the realities of life - loneliness, bereavement, money worries. These are not things that you can train out of someone. Oxil's research shows that 41% of people regularly worry about money, 22% often feel lonely and 12% have recently been bereaved. Scammers, sadly, target these kinds of situational vulnerabilities.

"The Global Signal Exchange is a perfect safeguarding platform because it's about sharing information. Information sharing is at the heart of safeguarding, as is removing the victim entirely from the equation: train the support workers, the police, the healthcare professionals - don't train the victim. You can't train people to be safe.

"One landmark child protection case that shaped how safeguarding operates was the murder of Victoria Climbié in 2000. Many professionals saw signs of abuse, but because they were siloed, she fell through the net and tragically died. In the recommendations from the Laming enquiry that followed her death, information sharing and coordinated work were identified as key opportunities for safeguarding.

"Safeguarding also forces us to look at who is able to engage with the systems we rely on. Training is not always accessible, and we often exclude populations such as people with linguistic or cognitive disabilities. The pressures that people are already carrying make this even harder. Oxil's research shows that tiredness, financial pressure and a hectic work-life balance are among the most common factors that make a scam harder to spot. In these moments, telling someone they should have used their 'common sense' compounds the harm. Our research shows that many victims blame themselves or feel embarrassed, which keeps them silent and makes recovery harder.

"Most people will have completed a GDPR or anti-phishing course, but it's not enough anymore. Scammers are becoming cleverer, and fraud is now industrialised.

"I'm pushing for a 'before, during, and after' approach. Currently, the tech community is all about fraud prevention - intercepting a message in a millisecond. Victims have been left behind. What happens during a scam attack, or after? Currently, if you ring your bank after being defrauded, they use 'before' solutions for 'after' problems. Among those who reported a scam, 41% felt nothing changed and 35% felt they had to solve everything themselves.

"Safeguarding also demands a wider lens. OXIL's research found that 89% of people have received what they believe to be a scam attempt. Among the groups most likely to be targeted are those with linguistic disabilities (35%), parents of pre-school-age children (23%) and people who have recently been through a bereavement (21%). I think safeguarding should apply to all adults, not just those who meet a specific threshold of vulnerability.

"We need to think outside the box. When we suggest our safeguarding approach, it tends to ruffle feathers, but that's a sign we're onto something. The public sector is excited; they feel seen by our research. We want to develop training for industry through a coalition of the willing. At the GSE, we want to reward success and incentivise positive change rather than just punishing or blaming people for the natural victim-blaming biases we all hold," Taylor said.

Wider patterns

OXIL said its conclusions draw on two strands of work: a survey of 2,300 adults across the UK and Ireland, conducted online by UK Omnibus Group, and an analysis of 28.6 million domain-name-based scam and fraud signals shared through the Global Signal Exchange.

The signal analysis was used to map how scammers target people in different circumstances. The findings suggest groups more likely to be targeted include people with linguistic disabilities, parents of pre-school-age children and people who had recently experienced bereavement.

Another result highlighted the limits of existing reporting systems. Among respondents who did report a scam, 41% said nothing changed and 35% said they felt they had to solve everything themselves.

That leaves a practical as well as emotional challenge for banks, police forces, technology firms and public services. OXIL argues that fraud response should be organised more like safeguarding in health, education and social care, with greater emphasis on information sharing and coordinated intervention across institutions.

The UK-based company owns the Global Signal Exchange, a cross-sector clearing house for threat signals. Its latest report was supported by Google.org and used human-in-the-loop large language model analysis to scale findings from 13,860 links to 29 million.

For businesses and policymakers, the research adds to a wider debate over whether anti-fraud efforts place too much responsibility on end users even as scams become more organised and convincing. The data suggests that shame and self-blame remain significant barriers to reporting, with seven in 10 people who received a suspected scam choosing not to alert anyone.