A good part of Romanians put into practice recommendations from the online environment, without consulting a specialist, which often brings them substantial financial losses, according to a recently published specialist study.
One in six Romanians admit that they have been tricked online
Almost 60% of Romanians admitted that they made financial decisions without checking them with a professional or a trusted source, according to a survey conducted by Dynata and Revolut, which also shows that 26% of respondents do this occasionally, 11% frequently and 21% rarely.
42% of survey participants said they never follow online recommendations. On the other hand, women are more cautious when it comes to trusting online financial advisors, and 47% of them never follow this type of advice without verification, compared to 37% of men.
Also, 36% of young people (18-34 years old) mentioned that they occasionally use this type of referrals with the hope of increasing their funds. Older generations, on the contrary, never seek or use online financial advice as inspiration to save money or invest (63%).
Fear of scams, the number one reason for rejecting online financial advice
For 45% of Romanian respondents, the main barrier to following online recommendations is the fear of fraud. Other significant concerns among the survey group include pump and dump schemes (24%), Ponzi schemes (22%) and exaggerated or misleading claims (17%). These obstacles vary by age and generation.
The 25-34 age group is most afraid of fraud (54%) and Ponzi schemes (29%), while older consumers (over 65) are put off by pump and dump schemes (33%).
A third admit they have lost money following online advice
How much money did respondents lose after following uncertified online advice? 28% said they had lost some amount of money, with the highest proportion among those losing up to €1,000 (16%). When it comes to financial advice, one in five respondents followed online advice without negative results. Conversely, one in four have never used advice from unknown online sources. Additionally, 22% said they had never invested, traded or sought financial advice.
There are, however, differences between the approaches of the two genres. Men are more risk-averse and 32% of men admit to following financial advice online that resulted in a loss, although the majority (20%) experienced losses they consider minor, under €1,000.
How confident Romanians are in their ability to identify misleading advice
A significant majority of the total sample (69%) is confident in being able to distinguish between credible and fraudulent financial advice online. But the moderate level of confidence is the most common. The largest segment of respondents (50%) stated that they were “somewhat confident” in his ability to discern financial advice. 25% of respondents indicate that they are “not very confident” or “not at all confident” in distinguishing between financial advice.
Men (74%) are more confident than women (65%) in their ability to distinguish between credible and misleading financial advice online, while women score higher than men in being confident about their own ability to spot such cases (14%).
Younger generations are also more confident in their ability to distinguish useful from misleading advice. The 18-24 age group shows the highest score (81%), followed closely by 25-34 year olds (77%) and 35-44 year olds (72%). As expected, the older generations (55-64 years and over 65 years) register higher percentages for the answers “Not confident at all” and “Not very confident” (14%, respectively 15%) compared to the younger groups.
