Kaspersky survey finds different shopping habits across generations but shared scam risks

Kaspersky's 10 November 2026 press release examines how different generations discover shopping discounts and the fraud risks associated with those channels. Its survey covered 7,200 online consumers in 18 countries, including Türkiye. The country-specific figures below refer to respondents in Türkiye; the generational comparisons refer to the global survey.

Different shopping habits, threats on both fronts

According to Kaspersky, 48% of Generation Z discover discounts and promotions through social media and content creators, while Baby Boomers favour search engines (38%) and brands' websites (39%). The company says the findings illustrate how shopping habits differ between generations and how fraudsters tailor their methods accordingly. Threats range from fake product sellers using deepfakes on TikTok to phishing aimed at older consumers who continue to use promotional email in their shopping journeys, a channel used by roughly a third of those older groups.

As the 2026 sales season approaches, Kaspersky surveyed 7,200 online consumers around the world, including Türkiye, to understand how different age groups make online purchasing decisions and where they find the best offers. The study found that generations discover discounts through different channels: Generation Z favour social media and online advertising, while Boomers turn to official brand websites and trust search results. Alongside its analysis of online shopping trends, the company issued recommendations for finding attractive offers without neglecting security.

Türkiye: brand sites, price comparisons and marketplace advertising

Across all age groups in Türkiye, the most commonly used channels for learning about discounts and promotions were brands' websites and mobile applications (39%), price-comparison sites (38%), advertisements on online marketplaces (36%), search engines (32%), recommendations from friends, family and colleagues (31%), and online-store notifications (30%).

Social media and content creators were preferred by 29% of respondents in Türkiye. Email and online advertising each accounted for 28%. A further 20% said they learned about special offers through AI-powered recommendations.

Influencer advertising, AI-powered offers and fraud risks

In the global results, Generations Z and Y were the most likely to use social media and content creators' recommendations to discover discounts and promotions. The proportion was 41% across all respondents, rising to 48% among Generation Z and 45% among Generation Y. Other channels favoured by Generation Z included official brand websites (41%) and online advertising (41%). Among Generation Z, 19% said AI recommendations influenced their purchasing decisions, while 20% cited brands' communications through messaging applications.

Kaspersky says that, as shopping increasingly becomes part of entertainment for younger consumers, cyberthreats can spread through the same digital channels as discounts and promotions. Browsing short videos, following Telegram channels or chatting with AI can now form part of the shopping journey, and fraudsters exploit those habits. In fraud schemes that the release describes as becoming more widespread in 2026, cybercriminals use AI and deepfake technology on TikTok and Instagram to sell products that do not exist. AI-generated characters promote supposedly handmade goods or health products promising miraculous effects and direct consumers to make payments. Buyers may end up receiving mass-produced products available much more cheaply elsewhere, or losing their money entirely.

AI-generated product images and descriptions create another risk: the delivered item can differ substantially from the images and descriptions presented before purchase. The release notes that TikTok Shop moderates misleading or inaccurate AI-generated advertising, but consumers still need to question the credibility of offers they encounter.

Kaspersky recommends the following precautions when looking for attractive offers on social networks:

• Examine the seller's profile. A recently created account or a username that has changed repeatedly can be a warning sign. Check comments, and be cautious if comments are disabled or consist solely of repetitive statements from bot accounts.
• Look for signs of AI-generated content. Hair that merges into clothing and objects that appear to float or overlap unnaturally are examples highlighted in the release. AI-generated content does not in itself prove that a product is fake, but warrants additional scrutiny. The release says platforms such as TikTok and Instagram require AI-content labelling, so a post that appears AI-generated but lacks a label can also be a warning sign.
• Use protected payment options. The release names platform-integrated systems such as Instagram Checkout and Facebook Pay, or established third-party providers such as PayPal, as examples that may offer protections unavailable with a direct bank transfer. It also presents Kaspersky Premium's online-payment protection as an additional security layer for financial transactions. These are examples from the company's international guidance, not a statement that each service is available in Türkiye. Availability and buyer-protection terms must be checked for the relevant country, platform and transaction.

Search engines are not automatically safe

The survey found that Baby Boomers aged 61 and over continued to favour more traditional digital-shopping methods. In this age group, 38% found discounts and promotions through search results and 39% visited online stores' websites directly. Baby Boomers also showed the lowest interest in seeking promotions: 11% said they were not interested in looking for special offers, the highest proportion among the age groups surveyed.

Promotional email remained an important source of information for approximately 30% of respondents in Generations Y, X and the Baby Boomer group, compared with 26% of Generation Z. Other habits were similar across generations: about 30% in all age groups continued to rely on recommendations from family members, friends and colleagues to learn about discounts and promotions.

The release reports figures of 21% and 17% for traditional advertising channels, mentioning television, radio, print and outdoor advertising. It does not clearly map those two percentages to the four named media, so they should not be treated as separate measurements for each medium. It compares those figures with the 17% reported for AI-powered shopping tools. Kaspersky says email, retailers' websites and online marketplaces remain priority targets for cybercriminals precisely because consumers are familiar with them and trust them.

For safer shopping through these channels, Kaspersky recommends the following habits:

• Be wary of offers that seem too good to be true. Treat unusually large discounts cautiously. Avoid websites that pressure visitors into immediate decisions and sellers that refuse returns or exchanges.
• Inspect website addresses carefully. Look for small spelling errors and unusual characters in URLs, especially when arriving via an email or messaging-app link. The release recommends security software with an anti-phishing component, such as Kaspersky Premium, to help identify fake stores and phishing pages encountered through emails and notifications. It states that Kaspersky Premium received an “Approved” certificate in AV-Comparatives' 2025 Fake Shops Detection test.
• Use a separate card for online shopping. Consider a dedicated debit or virtual card and enable transaction notifications for all bank and credit-card accounts. The company recommends an encrypted digital vault, such as Kaspersky Password Manager, to store card details and authentication information. It says such tools can also store important documents and make the information accessible across devices on which the application is installed.

Marina Titova: no generation is immune

Marina Titova, Vice President of Kaspersky's Consumer Business, commented:

“We see digital trends reshaping online purchasing habits across all age groups. Traditional promotional channels have long been giving way to offers delivered online, and social media and AI are now beginning to move ahead of search engines and brand websites.

“Younger generations see shopping as an entertainment experience, while older age groups approach it more as an activity aimed at finding the products they need. Unfortunately, no age group is completely safe from cyberthreats, whatever shopping method they prefer. Those threats can appear in a sophisticated AI scam or in an email sent for phishing purposes.

“At Kaspersky, we are committed to providing multilayered protection against different fraud scenarios and a safe online shopping experience for everyone, regardless of the channels consumers prefer to find the most attractive offers.”

Research scope

The research was conducted by Kaspersky's in-house research centre in August 2026. It included 7,200 participants from 18 countries: Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Türkiye and Vietnam. The release does not provide a separate Türkiye sample size or a margin of error. The findings describe reported channel preferences, not the percentage of shoppers who were successfully defrauded.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital-privacy company founded in 1997. The company says it has protected more than one billion devices against emerging cyberthreats and targeted attacks. Its threat intelligence and security expertise inform products and services for individuals, businesses, critical infrastructure and governments around the world. Its portfolio includes digital-life protection for personal devices, specialised corporate security products and services, and Cyber Immune solutions for sophisticated and evolving threats. It serves millions of individuals and approximately 200,000 corporate customers. Further information is available at Kaspersky's website.

Source: Kaspersky press release, 10 November 2026.

Dji Banner Inside Article - 728x90