New research released reveals that 1 in 8 Brits fall victim to online fraud in the UK every year, with the average cost to an individual victim totaling £463. This activity has earned online criminals more than £2.65 billion in the last 12 months.

As part of an ongoing public education program, this year will see the launch of the first Online Fraud Barometer, a bi-annual barometer of online fraud which aims to track the size of the internet fraud problem as well highlighting how to stay safe online.

There are ways to still enjoy the internet whilst protecting your identity and extra safeguards are constantly being created. The problem is the lack of public awareness about how to distinguish the safe sites from the increasingly sophisticated, fraudulent ones.

How can we be sure that a site we would like to buy from is safe to use?