While corporates are adopting stronger internal controls to combat the threat of payments fraud, new data from the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) reveals the number of incidents has continued to climb to new heights
In a press release Tuesday (April 9), the AFP announced that its 2019 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by JPMorgan, found record highs for the percentage of companies hit by payments fraud. A record-setting 87 percent of large companies with revenues more than $1 billion were hit by payments fraud in the past year, a 7 percent increase from the year prior.
Firms with revenue below $1 billion actually saw a decrease in fraud attempts in 2018, from 73 percent in 2017 to 69 percent last year.
However, instances of the business email compromise scam continued to climb, with 80 percent of companies surveyed reporting they were targeted by a BEC scam, up from 77 percent in 2017. Most of the companies targeted (54 percent) experienced a financial result of that scam, marking the first time the AFP has found that a majority of businesses suffered losses due to this type of attack.