1 in 5 Millennials Experienced Online Fraud While Holiday Shopping in 2020

All totaled, 12% of online shoppers experienced fraud during the 2020 holiday shopping season, according to The 2021 Holiday Shopping Outlook, a PYMNTS and Kount collaboration that surveyed more than 3,600 consumers.


But that headline number actually masks a worse problem beneath it, as the research revealed certain ages and income levels of consumers were significantly more likely than others to experience fraud. It’s a reality that, unsurprisingly, has a scarring effect that has left many consumers concerned about fraud in the 2021 holiday shopping season.

To better understand consumers’ shopping preferences, PYMNTS assigned online holiday shoppers into four categories: hard-to-please; convenience-driven; practicality-driven; and advice-seeking.

Among all the consumers who experienced fraud, advice-seeking shoppers had the highest incidences, with 29% saying they experienced fraud twice, and 8% saying they’d experienced it more than twice.

The other three persona groups were less likely than the sample group to say they’d experienced fraud either twice or more than twice. In fact, none of the practicality-driven shoppers said they experienced it more than twice.

Although advice-seeking shoppers had the highest incidences with fraud, they are not the persona group most concerned about fraud during the 2021 holiday shopping season. Instead, that No. 1 spot is held by hard-to-please shoppers, 100% of whom say they have concerns about fraud. Advice-seeking shoppers are ranked second, with 39% saying they have concerns.

The other two personas were much less worried. Only 9% of convenience-driven shoppers and less than 1% of practicality-driven shoppers said they had concerns about fraud.