A majority of American victims of data theft are still willing to use credit cards or social media sites or shopping online, a new survey suggested.
According to a poll of 8,308 US citizens conducted by Ipsos and Reuters, one in three Americans has seen fraudulent charges appear on a debit or credit card, and a quarter have had their email hacked.
However, about 64% of the data theft victims said the experience had not deterred them from using their credit or debit cards, and 63% continued to shop online.
More than a fifth said they have been told by a company or service provider that their financial information had been compromised, while about 14% have seen a social media account hacked. However, only 38% of Americans said they have never had personal data stolen, the poll revealed.
The poll was conducted from 2 to 27 January, just weeks after the massive data breach at Target, the third-largest US retailer. The data breach saw the theft of about 40m credit and debit card records and 70m of other records including customer personal information such as mailing addresses and phone numbers.
More recently, other stores have admitted they were also targeted at the same time, with Neiman Marcus announcing that up to 1.1m card details were stolen.
Following the breach the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged shoppers to monitor their accounts for unauthorised charges and alert their bank or card provider immediately if they suspect fraud.
