Go Ahead and Shop Online, U.K. Government Says
The British government would like everyone to start shopping online and
feel comfortable that it's as safe as shopping offline. That's the message
of a U.K. media campaign kicking off this week.
The pitch comes as a result of a Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) survey indicating that 47 percent of respondents were concerned
about the security of their Internet transactions.
The DTI's pre-Christmas media blitz forms part of the government's
ongoing "Clicking with Confidence" campaign, which started last year
when worries about e-commerce security surfaced in Great Britain.
The DTI survey showed that there are now clear regional differences
between Net shoppers. In London, for example, 35 percent of those
surveyed said they had some experience e-shopping, while only 17
percent of Welsh respondents said they had shopped online.
On average, 26 percent of respondents across the U.K. said they
had at some point shopped online.
Thirty-two percent said they were concerned about revealing
personal information on Web sites.
The research also found that, while almost half of respondents knew
there are certain risks associated with e-shopping, but only 3 percent
said they had ever experienced credit card fraud on the Net. That
compares to 5 percent who said they have experienced offline credit
card fraud.
The DTI research was completed by MORI between Sept. 20 and
Sept. 25, polling 2,013 people aged 15 or over.
www.dti.gov.uk
Reported by Steve Gold, Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .