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Security concerns have spurred 59% of consumers to change how they shop and pay online, according to a new report by Gartner Inc. The Stamford, Conn.-based consultancy based its findings on an online survey of 3,895 adults it conducted in September. Worries about security prompted 41% of consumers to change their online-banking practices. Twenty-three percent of consumers changed their payment methods at brick-and-mortar stores because of fears of data insecurity. Concerns about unsecured data influenced which brick-and-mortar stores 18% of consumers visited and which financial institutions 13% of respondents use. Seventy percent of respondents said they had never been victims of identity theft-based fraud. Among fraud victims, 19% said the fraud resulted from a data breach at a retailer, government agency or other third party. Sixteen percent said the fraud followed thefts of their wallets or purses, and 13% said it resulted from a phishing attack or other Internet-based scam. Internet-auction fraud scammed 9% of victims into providing financial data to fraudsters, 8% of respondents were victims of identity fraud by someone they knew, and 7% said thieves gained valuable data by stealing their personal documents. Less than one-third of victims reported the crimes to law enforcement, according to the report.
