Britishconsumers are keeping hundreds of billions of pounds out of stocks and otherinvestments largely because they fear falling victim to online scams, accordingto new research from Capital.com.Scam Concerns Keep £610Billion in UK Savings AccountsThe surveyof 1,004 UK adults found that 34% of conservative investors cited worries aboutpotential fraud as the primary reason they avoid investing beyond basic savingsaccounts. That figure topped concerns about market volatility, economicuncertainty, and product complexity, marking a shift in how consumers evaluatefinancial risk.About eightin 10 British adults feel too nervous to invest, with the research showing thatconfusion and misinformation create bigger obstacles than actual productperformance or market conditions. Only 13% of people who limit themselves totraditional savings products like Individual Savings Accounts and pensions feelconfident about their investment knowledge.The fear isnot unfounded. According to data from industry body UK Finance, Britonslost £1.17 billion to financial fraud and scams in 2024, with 2.6 millionsavers falling victim, a 22% increase from the previous year.This isanother study of the British market conducted by Capital.com, following theSeptember report that found UKtraders use stop-losses 60% more often than others, which in turn helpsthem achieve profits more frequently.Security Concerns TrumpMarket RiskTheresearch suggests that fraud anxiety now plays a more decisive role thanconventional investment worries in keeping people on the sidelines.[#highlighted-links#] Conservativesavers express roughly equal concern about online scams and actual investmentlosses, a pattern that doesn't hold for more experienced investors who viewscams as just one risk among many.Anothersignificant issue is the lack of education. Capital.com CEORupert Osborne said the findings point to a fundamental knowledge problemrather than pure risk appetite. "Whennearly nine in 10 can't tell the difference between the risk of investing inFTSE-listed companies and speculative crypto assets, it's clear the educationgap is costing the economy," he said.Theresearch comes as regulators and policymakers push to unlock what the FinancialConduct Authority (FCA) and Barclays recently quantified as £610billion sitting in excess cash savings held by roughly 15 million UK adults.ChancellorRachel Reeves last month backed a new advertising campaign to encourage stockand share investment, while the government released its Financial InclusionStrategy 2025, which calls for mandatory financial literacy teaching in Englishschools by 2028.Confidence Gaps Widen WithComplexityFamiliaritywith financial products drops sharply as complexity increases. While 88% ofconservative investors feel very familiar with standard savings accounts, thatfigure falls to under 10% for stocks, exchange-traded funds, and otherinvestment vehicles.The surveyfound that 92% of low-risk investors view cryptocurrencies and alternativeassets as extremely high risk, with 87% placing publicly traded stocks in thesame category. This lumping together of vastly different asset classes suggestsconfusion rather than sophisticated risk assessment.Mid-levelinvestors who already hold some investments beyond pensions and ISAs shownotably different patterns. While 45% of conservative savers say investingfeels too complex or difficult to navigate, only 22% of mid-level investorsshare that view. The gap extends to understanding inflation's impact on cashsavings — a concept that mid-level investors grasp intuitively but thatconservative savers only recognize when explicitly explained.Theresearch, titled "Fear or Fortune?", was conducted between December2024 and February 2025 using focus groups and a nationally representativeonline survey. It covered both conservative investors limited to traditionalsavings products and mid-level investors with exposure to stocks, bonds, orother assets beyond basic accounts.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.