Written by Marijn Overvest | Reviewed by Sjoerd Goedhart | Fact Checked by Ruud Emonds | Our editorial policy

11. 86% of fraud cases are asset misappropriation

Different kinds of fraudulent acts can be committed but the top 3 are asset misappropriation, corruption, and financial statement fraud.

Asset misappropriation accounts for 86% of fraud cases while corruption accounts for 43% and financial statement fraud accounts for 10% according to Marketsplash.

12. North America accounts for 42% of total fraud e-commerce losses 

Ekata states that out of all the regions, North American merchants account for 42% of total fraud e-commerce value loss globally. Western Europe makes up around 26% of the loss, followed by Asia making up at least 22% of total fraud e-commerce value loss.

13. Insider threat incidents have increased by 47% over the last two years

Every year insider threats affect businesses globally and cause significant financial loss, as seen in the statistics of Softactivity.

47% of insider threats have increased over the last two years and don’t show any signs of diminishing with organizations being on the guard as 66% of them feel that insider attacks are more likely to happen due to the surge in fraudulent crimes committed.

14. Nearly half of the 31% of EU&R companies have experienced procurement fraud

Cybercrime dominates in the energy, utilities, and resources (EU&R) sector where the biggest threat is procurement fraud. 31% of these EU&R companies, as stated by BusinessChief, experience crimes with nearly half of those crimes being procurement fraud.

15. Cybercrime cost increase by 15% in the next few years

Cybercrime continues to be on the rise with an estimated cost of 10.5 trillion by 2025, according to Astra. This 15% increase in cybercrime costs means an estimated $8 trillion loss in the year 2023 alone with 80% of crimes reported attributed to phishing within the technology sector.

16. 50% of fraud cases involve some degree of corruption

Things like invoice kickbacks, illegal gratuities, and purchasing schemes are some of the things considered corruption. 50% of all fraud cases involve some level of corruption. Additionally, financial statement fraud only accounts for about 10% of fraud but is the most damaging and incurs almost 6 times the loss from asset misappropriation.

17. 8% of fraud schemes used cryptocurrency

About 8% of fraud cases involved cryptocurrency, 48% of which used cryptocurrency for bribes or kickback payments. 43% of perpetrators used cryptocurrency as a means to convert their assets. And 35% of perpetrators used cryptocurrency for a money laundering scheme.

18. Managers make up 39% of perpetrators committing fraud

Managers are the most likely demographic to commit fraud, making up 39% of perpetrators. Closely following are employees who make up 37% of perpetrators committing fraud with owners and executives only making up 27% but causing 3 times as much median loss compared to managers.

19. 44% of fraud cases occur in private companies

Private companies are more likely to experience fraud attacks with a whopping 44% of cases occurring within private organizations. While both private and public organizations have a median loss of $150,000 only 26% of fraud attacks occur in public companies.

20. 60% of companies experience 30 or more cyber incidents in one year

Companies are subjected to 30 or more cyber incidents annually. 63% of these attacks happen because of employee or contractor negligence, showing that a significant number of cybercrimes committed can be prevented with the proper precautions.

Cyber-enabled Economic Crime

As the world progresses to the digital, so does the world of crime. Among the 19 categories of economic crime, cybercrime takes the cake for being the most infamous and the most disruptive within the last two years.

Companies need to find new ways to connect disjointed departments and identify risk scenarios across various functions. Cyber frauds and threats are usually handled by different departments that do not work or communicate with one another about risks, which cyber criminals know and take advantage of.

Procurement Fraud Increased Significantly During COVID-19

Social instability and economic downturn paved the way for fraud and financial crimes. During the pandemic, remote work grew exponentially. This lowered the risks of asset misappropriation but increased digital security issues as well.

Physically attacking employees or blackmailing has become the new concern as companies allow access to corporate data from the comfort of their employees’ homes. With this in mind, companies need to increase their awareness of this emerging risk.

External Threats on The Rise

A survey by PwC has found a disturbing trend among fraud and economic crimes in 2022. External entities that cannot be easily influenced or controlled are becoming stronger now. The biggest problem with external threats or fraudsters is that they are immune to traditional fraud prevention tools such as training, code of conduct, and investigations which force companies to seek legal action.

For years the main focus of fraud and theft in businesses was internal. However, due to the trend in external threats, companies may have had to shift their focus to consider external threats just as much.

Conclusion

Although consumer fraud and cybercrime remain worrisome to businesses, new threats may become bigger problems in the future. The potential of these threats fortunately draws attention to them which hopefully leads to better ways of prevention should they cause more problems in the future.

These emerging threats include environmental, social, governance (ESG), and supply chain fraud. The types and ways of fraudulent acts and how they can be committed are increasing and will do so continually in the coming years as supply chain disruptions continue to hurt international trade.