We've been running a survey about online shopping, safety and security, and the results show that one in four people have been the victim of online fraud and almost 90% fear they could be next.

We surveyed more than 1,250 visitors about their online safety concerns, and the key findings included:

• Almost one in four (23.8%) had been victims of fraudulent activity on the web
• Security was a concern for 89.4% of visitors when shopping online
• The major concern (47.8%) was theft of credit card details, followed by general worries (30.4%), non-delivery of goods (18.3%) and the website going out of business (3.5%)
• Less than half (56.2%) claimed to know their online shopping rights

Although this is similar to the stories we hear about crime statistics, that the fear of crime outweighs the reality, that doesn’t mean we should be relaxing and simply saying it’s not a problem. It shows that online retailers need to do more to make consumers feel more comfortable with shopping on the internet.

The fact that we have nearly one in four online shoppers having been victim of web-based fraud is still very worrying and shows that, despite the best efforts of responsible e-tailers, the ‘information superhighway’ is a popular place for the highwaymen of the 21^st Century.

Our advice?  Use Shopsafe, of course.