Half of Mobile Users Now Face Daily Scams

Almost half (44%) of mobile users report being exposed to scams and threats on a daily basis, with a majority concerned about losing important files and productivity loss as a result, according to Malwarebytes.

The security vendor polled 1300 adults in the US, UK, Austria, Germany and Switzerland for its Tap, Swipe, Scam report.

Although it focused on the personal impact of such threats, they’re having a growing impact on enterprise risk given the large number of organizations that allow BYOD.

Risk exposure was highest in the US (51%) and the UK (49%).

In the report, 66% of all respondents admitted it’s increasingly hard to spot a scam from legitimate communications, and over a third (36%) said they’d fallen victim in the past. Just under a fifth (36%) claimed they’d experienced a malware infection.

Read more on mobile risks: Half of Mobile Devices Run Outdated Operating Systems

These threats come via various mobile-related channels, most commonly email (65%), but also phone calls (53%), SMS (50%), social media (47%), messaging apps (40%) and “buying/selling platforms” (36%).

Social engineering is the most commonly encountered threat (53%), with a fifth (19%) of respondents falling victim. This chimes with separate studies which have tracked a growth in mobile-related phishing.

A Zimperium study from September 2024 claimed that 82% of all phishing sites now target mobile devices, while earlier this year the same vendor released data revealing that mobile phishing attacks (“mishing”) peaked in August 2024 at over 1000 per day.

According to Malwarebytes, extortion is also commonplace, with 17% having fallen victim to this type of mobile threat and 37% encountering one, including ransomware (25%), sextortion (24%) and deepfake scams (20%). Around a fifth (18%) even said they’d experienced a virtual kidnapping attempt.

An Emotional Toll

This is all taking a psychological toll on victims, according to the report. Three-quarters of respondents told Malwarebytes they’d experienced emotional harm such as mental health issues (46%) or blackmail/harassment (25%).

David Ruiz, senior privacy advocate at Malwarebytes, argued that mobile threats are personal as well as technical.

“As cyber-threats grow more sophisticated and cybercriminals truly adopt deepfake and AI technologies, we must go beyond raising awareness and empower users with the right tools and knowledge,” he added.

“No one should accept scams as the cost of digital life. There is no shame, we want people to feel confident spotting, stopping and reporting scams, no matter how intimate.”