Banking shares rebounded as fears of a crisis in the sector eased – Copyright AFP CHANDAN KHANNA
Business insurance experts have indicated that, in the past year, the average losses for businesses to fraudsters was more than £2.1 billion within the U.K. Figures show a rise in the number of crimes for Q1 2023 compared to the previous quarter (although there was a drop of 54 percent in the value of money lost).
The data and the analysis comes from Money.co.uk, a business insurance group have released their first ‘Business Fraud Report’. The report uncovers how cybercrime against organisations is on the rise.
From the review, it is apparent that Q3 2022 saw the highest value of reported losses, accounting almost half (46 percent) of the losses of the previous 4 quarters put together.
The most common cases of fraud and cybercrime in the U.K. during last quarter (Q4 2022) compared with this current quarter (Q1 2023) are displayed below:
| Sector | Q1 2023 (#) | Q1 2023 (£) | Q4 2022 (#) | Q4 2022 (£) |
| Banking Fraud | 1,974 | £41,600,000 | 1884 | £213,400,000 |
| Consumer Fraud | 1,601 | £26,800,000 | 1485 | £19,800,000 |
| Corporate Fraud | 775 | £24,300,000 | 876 | £26,300,000 |
| Cyber Dependent Crime | 589 | £818,300 | 502 | £214,000 |
| Public Sector Fraud | 198 | £3,300,000 | 124 | £561,900 |
| Investment Fraud | 118 | £9,700,000 | 93 | £19,100,000 |
| Advance Fee Fraud | 23 | £912,000 | 8 | £49,600 |
| Courier Fraud | 6 | £85,000 | 3 | £0 |
| Other | 5,126 | £39,000,000 | £40,000,000 |
As the table displays, banking fraud was the most common type of fraud, and represented the biggest value of losses for each of the last four quarters, accounting for over £833 million lost in total.
Banking fraud covers both unauthorised access to bank accounts (e.g. via hacking) or authorised fraud (where a victim with access to an organisation’s accounts is tricked into paying money to a criminal).
James Andrews, money.co.uk business insurance expert tells Digital Journal: “Fraud and cybercrimes cost businesses more than £2.1 billion in the past year. This is a reminder for organisations to invest in business insurance.”
