Italy telephony fraud victims exceed 3.2 million

An investigation by mUp Research for Facile.it reveals that over 3.2 million people in Italy were victims of, or attempted victims of, telephone fraud involving landlines or mobile phones over the past year. The total estimated economic damage is approximately 731 million euros.

Fraudsters primarily utilize fake call centers, false emails, and SMS messages. For mobile telephony, nearly one in four scams occurs through instant messaging apps. The average loss per incident is 209 euros for landlines and 176 euros for mobile services.

Data indicates that younger populations are more frequently targeted by mobile scams, with the 18-24 age group seeing an incidence rate of 10.7% compared to the national average of 6%. Additionally, university graduates are more than twice as likely to be victims compared to the general population. Despite the scale of the issue, 59.4% of victims did not report the incidents, often citing low economic damage or personal embarrassment as reasons.