Women do not detect Internet scams as well as men do

Women are significantly more likely than men to fall for Internet scams, a new piece of research has claimed after conducting an online test.

In six out of seven tests, women were less likely to detect a scam than men, with females in the supposedly tech-savvy 25-34 age group especially easy to fool, according to Nominet-backed website, Knowthenet.

The study group consisted of 2,000 online consumers who were tested on their ability to assess scams across a range of online categories, including bogus goods, spam attachments, and identifying fake social networking pages, Techworld says.

According the study, women failed six out of seven tests thrown at them and those aged between 25-34 were the most likely to fall for online scams.

Individually, the type of scam determines the demographic of the 'victim' most likely to fall for it.

It was found that 53 per cent of men failed to recognise confidence trick scams, the type of scams that ask people to send money to help someone who is in distress, ITProPortal reports.