Over a third - 36 per cent - of UK consumers have committed “friendly fraud” regarding missing packages, according to research from fraud prevention software provider Signifyd.

“Friendly fraud” is when you make a false claim that an e-commerce order was never delivered to keep the product and land a refund.

The research, conducted in late 2020, surveyed 1,500 US consumers and 1,500 UK consumers about their buying habits.

These levels of fraud markedly contrasted with research Signifyd conducted in January 2020 before the outbreak of the pandemic, where it found only 8.1 per cent had committed this type of fraud.

This wasn’t the only type of fraud the report covered, 32.1 per cent of UK respondents admitted to breaking discount or promotion rules to receive a price break they were not entitled to.

The research also touched on consumers habits more generally, finding 60.4 per cent of US consumers said they would be spending less this year, compared to 66.7 per cent of UK respondents who said the same.

Almost half - 47.9 per cent - of UK respondents said a year from now they’d be shopping differently than they were a year ago because they’d be relying more heavily on click-and-collect.

In the US, 60.1 per cent of respondents said they expected to continue to buy online or pick up in store more often.

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