39% Indian families claim to be victim of online financial fraud: LocalCircles survey

Around 39% of families in a survey claimed to have experienced financial fraud in the last three years and only 24% of them got their funds back, LocalCircles said in a report on Tuesday.

23% of respondents in the survey indicated to have experienced credit or debit card fraud while 13% indicated fraud by buying, selling and classified site users.

As per the survey, 13% were defrauded by websites taking money for products that were not delivered, 10% indicated ATM card fraud, another 10% indicated bank account fraud and 16% mentioned other frauds.

"The data shows 30% of those surveyed had one member in the family who had been a victim of financial fraud while 9% 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.

The firm said that the survey received nearly 32,000 responses from families located in 331 districts of India comprising 66 per cent male respondents and 34% women.

About 39% of respondents were from tier 1, 35% from tier 2 and 26% of respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

When asked if the victims were able to get their funds, 24% of the 11,305 responses received indicated that they were able to get back their funds while 70% could not get any resolution to their complaint.

The data showed 18% filed a complaint with the designated platform or entity and got back the money and 6% filed a complaint with authorities and got back the funds.