Digital fraud fears are driving consumers away from online purchases
Fear of digital fraud is shaping online shopping: inconsistencies on familiar websites can erode trust in brands and hinder sales.
A browser warning or a minor change in a web address may be enough for a consumer to abandon a purchase and look for another store.
Fear of digital fraud is leading consumers to abandon purchases and distrust familiar brands, even when irregularities on a website stem from technical failures.
According to the Liferay 2026 Broken Trust Report, 69% of consumers surveyed in the United States have abandoned a purchase they intended to make out of fear of a digital scam, while 75% say they would turn to a competitor to complete the same purchase.
The study’s findings, presented by Anne Durey, Senior Marketing Specialist at Liferay, show how risk signals on a website can undermine brand trust and affect sales. The analysis takes place in an environment where users remain alert to potential digital fraud.
“Today, we browse in a noisy environment. News about phishing, fake stores, and stolen credentials appears all the time. Creating a convincing imitation website is easier than ever, especially now that generative artificial intelligence can copy an entire site from a single screenshot,” says Durey.
The survey was conducted in December 2025 in partnership with Pollfish and included 1,000 adults aged 18 and older from different regions and demographic backgrounds across the United States. Although the results concern that country, Durey related the findings to the Latin American context and presented additional data on Colombia.
Distrust sets in within seconds.
For a significant proportion of consumers, the reaction to a familiar website that starts behaving strangely is immediate. Forty percent of respondents immediately question whether the site is safe; 29% slow down their browsing and pay closer attention, while 28% leave without trying to resolve the issue. Only 4% say they barely notice.
Durey links this behavior to daily exposure to fraud attempts. Sixty-four percent of respondents say phishing emails have made them more cautious; 49% believe strange messages have become part of their routine, and 36% have encountered fake shopping websites.
“Customers are cautious for a good reason. They encounter scams everywhere, so small inconsistencies are interpreted as a risk. Trust is decided in seconds based on how the website behaves and the signals it displays,” she says.
This caution is reflected in the signals that raise the most suspicion. Browser warnings were mentioned by 39% of respondents, followed by a slightly different web address, at 19%, and unexpected pop-up windows, at 18%. In another question about which situation causes trust to be lost most quickly, 32% pointed to a web address that appears different.
For Durey, continuity in the digital experience influences perceptions of security.
“Domain continuity and predictable site behavior carry the greatest weight in people’s perception of security.”
The consequences extend beyond browsing. Sixty-one percent of participants say an unusual incident changes their level of trust in the company behind the website, and 71% believe the site’s reliability influences their overall assessment of the company.
“Users do not distinguish between ‘the site went down’ and ‘this company is not trustworthy.’ To them, it is the same thing,” Durey explains.
A loading failure, an unexpected design change, or an element that does not work as expected can affect brand perception, even when the problem is unrelated to actual fraud.
Warnings can derail a purchase.
Among the situations analyzed in the report, browser security warnings trigger one of the strongest reactions. When an alert appears on a website they have used before, 47% of respondents leave immediately. Another 29% search online or ask others whether anyone has reported the problem; 12% contact the brand, 8% try accessing the site from another device, and only 4% continue using it.
In addition, 75% of respondents agree that unexpected website behavior can appear unsafe. This perception helps explain why a temporary failure can have commercial consequences that go beyond its technical severity.
“Sometimes, a very small technical failure, such as an outdated certificate, can have a very large business impact,” Durey warns.
Reactions also vary by age. When faced with a browser warning, 28% of Generation Z, 37% of millennials, 46% of Generation X, 58% of baby boomers, and 70% of people born before 1942 say they would leave immediately. These differences show that the same signal can prompt different responses across age groups.
Brand recognition does not eliminate the risk. Ninety-one percent of respondents believe that even large, well-known companies can fall victim to fake or compromised websites. When a familiar store experiences loading problems, 29% say they would leave, 28% would assume the site is unsafe, and 22% would suspect they were looking at a fake version.
There is also widespread reluctance to use unfamiliar domains: 91% of participants say they avoid them, at least to some extent. This can affect campaign landing pages and microsites that use web addresses different from a company’s main domain.
Durey warns that users assess not only the website itself but also the consistency of the channels through which they reach it.
“Every time people enter a new experience or switch to another channel, they start looking for problems and risks. They have been trained to do that.”
For this reason, she argues that the journey across emails, social media, and websites should maintain a consistent appearance and behavior. A message that leads to a page with a different design, an unexpected address, or different steps can fuel suspicion before the user completes their task.
Colombia and Latin America face digital fraud.
Although the Broken Trust Report draws on responses from U.S. consumers, Durey related its findings to the Latin American situation and presented figures on Colombia.
According to DataCrédito Experian data cited by Durey, as of August 2025, 71% of Colombians had received at least one fraud attempt during the previous year; of that group, 46% ultimately became victims. In addition, 95% believed fraud occurred frequently in the country.
Durey cites figures attributed to Kaspersky’s Threat Landscape report: 99 million phishing attempts detected in Colombia in 2025, a 65% increase compared with 2024, and more than 1.2 billion blocked phishing attempts across Latin America.
Durey linked this landscape to how users interpret irregularities on websites: “That is why Latin American users treat any visual inconsistency as a possible copy.”
In this context, portal stability is not merely a matter of functionality. Durey described the case of a self-service portal displaying a certificate warning on a payment screen: the user may abandon the transaction before the support team even becomes aware of the problem.
Explaining failures can help restore trust.
The report also examines what could help restore trust after a negative experience. Forty-seven percent of respondents prefer to receive a clear, visible message explaining what happened and what was fixed. By contrast, 11% say that nothing would help them regain trust.
For Durey, the response involves not only fixing the technical failure but also clearly communicating what happened.
“Explaining what happened when something fails can make the difference between a user abandoning your website and a sale being converted,” she emphasizes.
She recommends preparing messages in advance for use during an interruption and defining who will draft, approve, and publish them. The explanation should be brief and visible, allowing users to understand what happened, what was fixed, and whether the service has returned to normal.
Durey also proposes reviewing the elements involved in the most sensitive moments of the browsing experience: keeping certificates up to date, preventing browser warnings on critical pages, reducing redirects between domains, and eliminating unexpected pop-ups during checkout. To achieve this, she believes technology, marketing, and customer experience teams need to work in coordination.
The specialist insists that the response should not rest solely with technology or marketing teams but should also involve customer experience teams. She also proposes adapting measures to the reactions of different age groups: reducing warnings that prompt older consumers to abandon a site and reviewing elements such as unexpected pop-ups, domain changes, and additional steps in the purchasing process for younger audiences.
The findings point to a clear conclusion: digital trust can deteriorate before a company has an opportunity to explain what is happening. If a familiar website behaves unexpectedly, consumers may interpret the irregularity as a threat and choose not to proceed. In a shopping experience, that decision can mean not just a lost visit but a sale that ends up in a competitor’s hands.
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