Businesses may be vulnerable to fraud in recession

Businesses are being warned that they may be at an increased risk of fraud amid the current recession due to reduced staff numbers which may have resulted from redundancies.

A recent survey carried out by the Institute of Directors shows that nearly a fifth of company directors had seen an increase in business crime this year, with fraud accounting for a third of this.

And BDO Stoy Hayward’s fraud report update has predicted that the growth rate of the crime has almost doubled in six months.

Commenting on the figures, Paul Jonson, partner and corporate fraud specialist at Pannone LLP, said criminal gangs had been targeting some firms by placing workers in call centres to steal identity data, which may mean HR staff may wish to be particularly vigilant to prevent such action being taken.

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He concluded: “The recession has made businesses vulnerable because staff numbers have been cut and this means teams are often a few people down meaning they are rushed and perhaps not checking things correctly.”