Fraudsters turn their attention to bigger businesses, survey finds
Larger businesses are experiencing far higher levels of fraud than smaller businesses as fraudsters seek to exploit vulnerabilities in organisations with higher numbers of employees, a new survey from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO has found.
While a quarter (27%) of small businesses surveyed by the firm said they had suffered fraud in the last five years, the figures were significantly higher for the two largest categories of business – 81% for those with between 1500-2000 employees and 60% for businesses with more than 2000 employees.
The results come from a BDO survey of 500 directors and business owners from entities with more than 200 employees, conducted to find out directly from the business community about their experience of fraud.
Overall, the number of entities that have suffered fraud incidents during the last five years has significantly decreased. Four in ten businesses (42%) said they had experienced fraud, a notable drop from 83% the previous year. Additionally, the occurrence of multiple fraud incidents has reduced from 49% to 15%.
In terms of fraud reduction, 46% of businesses reported less fraud than last year, while only 9% saw an increase.
The proportion of fraud that was externally perpetrated has increased to 42%, up from 31% last year. Conversely, internal fraud and fraud involving collusion have decreased by 3% and 8%, respectively.
The most common level of fraud losses experienced by businesses surveyed was 1-4% of turnover, but higher levels were found in certain sectors. In the Charity sector, 80% of organisations reported fraud losses of 5-9% of turnover. In the Health Care and Social Assistance sector, 33% reported fraud losses of 10-14% of turnover and in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector 22% experienced fraud losses in the 20%+ range.
Commenting on the findings, Stephen Peters, head of investigations at BDO LLP said: “Fraud remains a significant problem for individual businesses and the wider economy. It is noteworthy that over a third of surveyed businesses estimate that their fraud losses are 5% of turnover or higher. These losses directly impact profitability and can therefore have catastrophic knock-on effects. This is consistent with the scale of issues we regularly see when conducting investigations.
“It is clear that large businesses are particularly tempting targets for fraudsters who are lured by the prospects of higher gains and attracted by the potential vulnerabilities and entry points associated with organisations with high employee numbers.
“However, this year there are some definite positive trends. Nearly half of the businesses surveyed experienced less fraud than the previous year, and over three-quarters have started preparing for the new failure to prevent fraud offence.
“This is encouraging. Following the recent introduction of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, we hope the coming year will see all businesses enhance their anti-fraud infrastructure, continue the drive to establish more robust preventative regimes, and proactively monitor and respond to new threats as they arise.”
According to the BDO report, whistleblowing – a valuable source of information for businesses – was the most common method of fraud detection, accounting for 19% of cases.
The four core internal fraud detection methods of internal controls, internal auditing, internal fraud teams and internal whistleblowing accounted for 50% of the detection methods that identified the frauds in our surveyed entities.
Recovery of amounts lost remains a significant challenge, with 58% of businesses expecting to recover less than 10% of their fraud losses by value.
