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Corporate breaches make headlines. Nation-state hacks grab attention. But this battlefield is personal. Bitdefender’s 2025 Consumer Cybersecurity Survey turns the spotlight on individuals, and what it finds is unsettling. Among 7,000 people surveyed worldwide, one in seven fell victim to a scam last year. Fourteen percent lost money or data, often through social media. AI-generated scams — from deepfaked voices to fake job offers — are now the leading fear for 37% of consumers.
“Cybercriminals are relentless,” said Ciprian Istrate, Bitdefender’s senior vice president of consumer solutions. “Awareness and the right tools empower consumers to defend themselves.”
The AI Scam Economy: Deepfakes and Deception
Bitdefender’s report calls 2025 “the year of AI scams.” It documents a surge in synthetic deception — scammers cloning voices, faces, and entire personas.
In one cited case, scammers mimicked a man’s son’s voice, using only a few seconds of social media audio, to demand $15,000 in “bail money.” These “AI-forged” scams are convincing, scalable, and devastatingly effective.
The study shows 37% fear AI-driven scams most, followed by job loss (30%) and misinformation (29%). Yet, despite this awareness, personal habits lag far behind.
Phones Are the New Frontline
Our phones have become wallets, ID cards, and gateways to everything from work to healthcare. Yet, protection remains neglected.
More than half (53%) conduct transactions on their phones, but nearly half (48%) run no independent security solution. In the U.S. and Australia, fewer than half use any mobile protection.
A third of users think security apps are too expensive or fear they’ll slow performance. Some even believe their devices don’t need protection — a costly misconception as AI scams target the elderly and the inattentive alike.
Social Media: Scam Central
Oversharing is now a security flaw. Social media has overtaken email as the top scam channel, accounting for 34% of successful attacks — ahead of email (28%), phone calls (25%), and texts (24%).
Younger users, who post the most, are twice as likely to be scammed as older adults. TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp dominate their online life — and cybercriminals know it.
Women share more visual content; men post more political or news material. Together, these habits provide cybercriminals with free reconnaissance for personalized attacks.
Convenience Kills Security
Speed trumps safety.
Despite years of warnings, 37% still write down passwords, and 17% reuse them across multiple accounts. Only 27% use password managers.
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Cookie complacency is rampant: 48% “accept all” without review, and 75% never read the terms. Victims of scams are more likely to do so (60%) than those who’ve avoided them (46%).
Bitdefender calls this the “convenience paradox”: consumers fear losing money but take shortcuts that make loss inevitable.
Who Do Consumers Trust?
Trust in Big Tech is conditional.
People rely on Apple, Google, and Microsoft daily, yet remain wary. Nearly 60% refuse to share credit card data with tech firms. Trust plummets for TikTok, X/Twitter, and OpenAI — over half of respondents distrust them completely.
Europeans, shaped by GDPR, are more privacy-conscious. Americans prioritize convenience. But both groups keep using platforms they admit they don’t trust.
What Consumers Fear Most
Money rules the mind.
Fifty-three percent said financial loss is their biggest fear. Identity theft trails far behind at 17%, with photo leaks and email compromise under 10%.
Older generations worry most about finances. Younger ones fear having their identities stolen or having their private content exposed. Alarmingly, 5% fear nothing at all — even as scams and breaches rise globally.
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Conclusion: Common Sense Isn’t Enough Anymore
Bitdefender’s conclusion is blunt: “Spotting fraud with common sense is no longer enough.”
AI has democratized deception. Everyday choices — password reuse, social sharing, cookie acceptance — open the door for scammers.
The company’s advice:
- Use password managers and two-factor authentication.
- Secure your phone first.
- Limit what you share online.
- Manually manage cookies.
- Assume AI is behind every unexpected message.
In a digital world of instant gratification, personal cybersecurity depends on patience and skepticism.
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