Survey finds online fraud is biggest worry facing businesses

THE MISAPPROPRIATION of assets, computer crime and accounting fraud are the most common types of economic crime encountered by Irish businesses, a new survey has found.

Of the three, online fraud – illegally distributing files, phishing attacks and stealing account details – is the biggest worry facing businesses, the PwC Global Economic Crime survey said.

Respondents were becoming increasingly aware of the risks of such crime, and almost three-quarters of Irish businesses said they were concerned they would suffer financial or reputational damage as a result. However, a third are unaware if their business can prevent and detect online crime.

Accounting fraud has fallen by 23 per cent compared with 2009.

More than 3,800 business representatives in 72 countries took part in the global survey. Some 80 firms were in Ireland.

The survey found that more than a quarter of organisations in Ireland fell victim to some form of fraud in the past year. That was slightly below the European average of 30 per cent.

About 38 per cent of those respondents said the financial impact of the crime they had suffered was in the €75,000 to €3.5 million range. However, there are other consequences companies should consider. About a third said it also hit employee morale, and 24 per cent felt their reputation was affected.

Companies have a number of weapons at their disposal to detect financial crime, including routine internal audit procedures, which detected fraud in 29 per cent of companies.