Working from home fuelling fraud epidemic, say managers

WORKING from home is fuelling a fraud epidemic, with a growing number of staff falling victim to scams related to their employers.

Research by accountant BDO found almost nine in 10 of mid-sized businesses it surveyed had become victims of fraud last year, with average losses totalling £219,000 per firm. More than one quarter of these firms also fell victim to fraud at least twice.

Almost four fifths of bosses blame remote and “hybrid” working practices for putting them at greater risk, BDO said. Kaley Crossthwaite, the accountancy company’s head of fraud, warned that working from home left employees more exposed to “social engineering” practices used by criminals to lull them into a false sense of security.

For example, a fraudster might regularly call an employee and pretend to be from another division of the business, a foreign branch, or a supplier. After building the relationship over time, the criminal might then use their familiarity to dupe the employee into making a bank transfer or to reveal confidential information.

The risk of these “red flags” going unnoticed is greater when working from home because people tend to spend less time speaking casually to colleagues, Ms Crossthwaite said.

She added: “Previously people were sitting next to colleagues, and they would say, ‘I’ve got a question, how should I do this?’ Or ‘do you know this person?’ Or ‘have you ever come across this before?’.

“People were not working in isolation in the way that they have been.”

Despite the growing risk, BDO found that 66pc of medium-sized companies are planning to cut spending on anti-fraud measures as a result of rising costs.