How Can We Stop Hybrid Working From Fuelling Fraud?

Most people would probably agree that being a victim of fraud should never, ever be an accepted aspect of managing a business. But when doing the research for the most recent ‘Payments Barometer’, a staggering 55% of respondents commented that they see financial loss as ‘part and parcel’ of running a business. 

This would be easier to accept if it was straightforward for organisations to recover fraud losses – or even if businesses really believed they were already doing everything possible to defeat the fraudsters. But in a world where organisations successfully recovered only 20% of their losses to fraud (albeit rising from 13% in 2019 and 17% in 2020), a full 70% of respondents admitted they could be doing more to mitigate fraud risk. And these aren’t small businesses. Around three-quarters of the large (1,000 to 9,999 employees) and enterprise (10,000+) organisations that were surveyed also made this admission. 

Dorris believes a kind of double whammy is at play: “As organisations make cuts in the attempt to operate with a leaner staff, they can find themselves caught in a perfect storm for fraud: pressures motivating employee fraud are high at the same time that defences intended to safeguard against fraud have been weakened.” 

Which is pretty much where we came in, with the ‘Payment Barometer’ report indicating that 70% of companies still recognise they could be doing more to tackle fraud of all kinds. And there is no doubt: they certainly could – and, many would say, should – be doing more… 

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