Brits are better than Americans at spotting phishing scams, NordVPN study shows

The UK ranks best among English-speaking countries for awareness of how to identify a phishing website
By contrast, only 31% of respondents from the US were able to correctly spot such phishing attempts
While the UK leads the charge in spotting phishing scams, awareness of AI privacy issues is at a mere 5%

In a survey of 30,792 participants from 185 countries, the UK turned out to be the best English-speaking country at identifying phishing websites.

Overall, the UK ranks 5th globally in the annual National Privacy Test. The test takes into consideration things such as knowing how a device can be infected with malware or knowing how to craft a strong password. It was carried out by NordVPN, which is one of the best VPN providers according to our testing.

Although Brits are great at spotting phishing scams, a few key areas still need improvement, such as knowing which online tools to use to protect their digital privacy or knowing where to store their passwords.

Brits are the best at spotting phishing, says NordVPN

Survey results from NordVPN's 2025 National Privacy Test — (Image credit: NordVPN)

According to the latest National Privacy Test carried out by NordVPN, UK citizens have a lot to be happy about in terms of knowing how to stay safe online.

The study revealed that Brits were among the strongest in knowing how to identify a phishing website. The same goes for knowing how their devices might get infected with malware.

The difference in phishing website awareness between the UK and the US is quite striking. For Brits, it was one of the strongest points, but for the US, NordVPN listed it as one of the things that need some improvement. Only 31% of US respondents knew how to properly spot phishing websites, as per the survey findings.

As scams and phishing attempts grow more sophisticated day after day, awareness is the first step toward staying safe. NordVPN’s survey shows that Brits are already doing a good job of this, but it never hurts to stay extra safe with tools that make it easier to block phishing attempts.

Tools like the NordVPN Threat Protection Pro take some of the guessing out of spotting online scams. It blocks malicious websites, trackers, and ads, and scans downloads for malware.

Contrary to similar tools offered by other providers, ExpressVPN and IPVanish, Threat Protection Pro works at the URL and JavaScript levels to offer a higher level of protection, even without an active VPN connection.