Businesses are being urged to stay vigilant when paying their bills or changing supplier
Invoice scams make up 55% of money lost to scammers: Barclays. Source: shutterstock.com
Barclays has found that in the last three months, fraudsters stole the most money from SMEs through invoice scams.
Invoice scams are when fraudsters divert genuine invoices or payment instructions sent by email, often from a familiar supplier or contact. They then send a replica email with bank details changed to an account controlled by them.
Barclays data has shown that this type of scam accounted for 55% of all money lost by SME clients in the last three months, up 6%t year-on-year, with an average loss of ￡2,100.
The overall amount stolen from SMEs has gone up 13% over 2021, despite the volume going down, indicating that scammers are succeeding in fewer, higher-value scams, and business owners are at risk of making greater losses.
A recent poll of UK businesses reveals that 85% are worried about the effect the upcoming price hikes and increased operating costs will have on their business. In fact, 56% stated it will have an impact on their bottom line.
Nearly 9 in 10 said they would be willing to switch to a supplier they haven’t heard of before if they were offering a better price.
Whilst invoice scams have been the most profitable for scammers in the last three months, purchase scams, where businesses buy items that do not arrive, were the most common type. This was followed by impersonation scams, where fraudsters pretend to be from trusted organisations.
We’ve reported that Zoomers are driving the demand for recommerce.
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