A new report released has revealed details of a whopping £9bn lost to scammers as a result of fraudulent invoicing and scam debt recovery.
The report, complied by Tungsten Invoicing Network, was conducted with over 1,000 companies contributing to the findings. A massive 47% of companies stated they had been contacted with ‘fake’ invoices for payment with 54% of companies citing business fraud as the biggest threat to them.
Rather suprisingly, only 44% of businesses said they would contact the Police or Action Fraud if they received a dodgy invoice whilst 13% admitted they would not know how to deal with the situation.
Typical invoice fraud methods used by con artists and scammers include fake invoices, phishing viruses hidden in attachments, false changes to bank details and duplicated invoices.
It is estimated that 43% of all cyber attacks are aimed at small to medium sized businesses.
Head of Action fraud Pauline Smith said “It is important that employees are made aware of invoice scams and are ready to recognise the signs of fraud. Incidents of invoice fraud are underreported and therefore it is difficult to know the true scale of this fraud type”
She continued “However, what we do know is that this type of fraud prevails across all types of business and no one type of industry is immune”
Anybody experiencing or receiving dodgy emails with requests for payment are urged to visit the website of Action Fraud for advice and assistance.
