Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been warned of increased risk of scams targeting their companies.
According to UK Finance, British businesses lost £59.2m ($43.6m) to fraudsters in the first half of 2021, an increase of 35%.
“As many businesses start the new year with people working from home, fraudsters will try to take advantage of opportunities to steal money where firms might be working outside of their normal processes,” the trade association said.
“Criminals often attempt to impersonate a chief executive, senior manager, or supplier to try and convince staff to make an urgent payment or to change the existing bank account details held on file.”
These scams then result in the victim transferring money to a criminal instead.
Read more: Bank fraud rises with ‘authorised’ scam complaints spiking 30% in the UK
In a new survey conducted for the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign, 80% of SMEs said they had received an unsolicited text or email request for money and personal information, and 64% had received unsolicited phone calls.
The survey also found that although 62% of SMEs claim to be more aware of fraud since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, 16% still did not challenge unsolicited phone calls requesting money or personal…