A new survey has claimed that over a third of Irish SMEs have been targeted by financial fraud in the past twelve months, with 1 in 18 of these attempts proving successful.

The most common types of scam encountered by SMEs are Phishing Emails (72%), followed by Vishing, a phone-based phishing scam (26%), and Invoice Redirection scams (21%).

The survey was undertaken for FraudSMART by Behaviour & Attitudes  using a randomly selected sample of 160 business owners and managers.

FraudSMART is a fraud awareness initiative developed by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland in conjunction its member banks.

The campaign aims to raise consumer and business awareness of the latest financial fraud activity and trends and provide simple and impartial advice on how best they can protect themselves and their resources.

In Association with

National Fraud Awareness Week has a focus on financial fraud prevention among SMEs.

The survey found that one in three firms do not confirm the legitimacy of new bank details from suppliers before confirming a payment.

Niamh Davenport of FraudSMART commented: “While businesses are aware of the threat that financial fraud poses, there appears to be complacency around putting guidelines and measures in place to combat itI would encourage SMEs to familiarise themselves with the types of scams they can be targeted with and take the necessary precautions to protect their business.”

FraudSMART has developed a brochure ‘Protect Your Business from Fraud’ aimed specifically at the business community. This brochure is available to download, for free, on www.fraudsmart.ie.

Photo: TV personality Simon Delaney