Cybercrime increases fraud in companies by almost 20 points

54% of Spanish companies claim to have suffered some type of economic fraud in the last two years, above the world average. Misappropriation, corruption and bribery, accounting manipulation, and cyber fraud continue to be the main crimes suffered by our companies, according to the global survey on fraud and economic crime carried out every two years by PwC .

The survey is carried out on more than 3,000 companies around the world. Specifically, 54% of Spanish companies claim to have suffered some type of economic fraud in Email Data the last twenty-four months. Figures that place us above the world average (49%) -see graph-, in line with the main countries around us, such as the United Kingdom (50%), Germany (50%) and the United States (53%). .

Since 2009, the percentage of Spanish companies affected by fraud and economic crimes has grown almost twenty points – from 35% to 54%. An increase that has to do with the development of new technologies and, paradoxically, with greater implementation and effectiveness of detection mechanisms and the growing concern in organizations about economic fraud. But what types of fraud are most common in our companies? What losses do they cause? Are the authors inside or outside the companies? What profile do they have? Are companies investing enough to prevent them?

The misappropriation of assets is the main type of crime of which Spanish companies are victims, followed by corruption and bribery, accounting manipulation, and cyber fraud. Precisely, those surveyed consider that crimes derived from cyberattacks are going to gain weight significantly over the next two years and increase both in number and impact on organizations.

The document reveals that the damages for companies that are victims of economic crimes are multiple. On the one hand, there are the direct economic costs. In Spain, for example, 32% of those surveyed in the study claim to have had losses of between 100,000 and one million dollars as a result of the most serious crime experienced in the last two years; and 34% raise these losses above one million dollars.



On the other hand, there are indirect costs – lawyers, internal and external investigations, etc. – whose amount, although lower, is significant. And finally, there are damages that affect other aspects of companies such as reputation or employee perception.

Internal enemy and in charge

In Spanish companies, 50% of the frauds that occur are committed by someone within the organization, while 33% come from outside the company. Regarding the authorship of internal frauds, practically all of them are carried out by members of the management team and intermediate positions. While in the case of external crimes, responsibilities are distributed between suppliers -42%, consumers/clients -50%-, hackers -25%-, intermediaries -25%- and competitors -8%-.

The report concludes that, in the last two years, 69% of Spanish companies have increased the budget allocated to fighting economic crime and 58% plan to continue doing so over the next two years. Likewise, 75% of organizations claim to have a formal business ethics and regulatory compliance program, compared to 52% who in the 2016 survey declared they had implemented the corresponding program.

However, despite this increase in investment, many companies still lack a strategy for the prevention and detection of economic crime. In Spain, for example, one in ten companies acknowledges that, in the last two years, they have not carried out any type of review or evaluation of their exposure to the risk of committing economic crimes.