Alara Basul, head of content at Ravelin, a fraud detection firm, dispels seven common misconceptions about fraud and fraudsters.
Fraud has evolved dramatically over the recent years. Last year, The Guardian reported that the value of fraud committed in the UK topped £1bn for the first time since 2011, which prompted warnings about increasing cyber crime and the risk of more large-scale scams.
And there’s no doubt that fraud itself is a mysterious topic – fraudsters are assumed to be untraceable and all of their online activities are somewhat encrypted.
However, there are a lot of misconceptions around fraud and fraudsters in the industry. Here are 7 misconceptions that we’ve uncovered.
1. Fraudsters usually target larger companies rather than small businesses or personal accounts
This is one of the most common myths we hear about fraud, and this is largely due to the bigger businesses making the headlines. Take Wannacry’s latest ransomware for example, or the latest Uber or Equifax breaches; these companies are of huge scale and are seen as a ‘typical’ target. Alongside these headlines however are several small businesses that have been affected by fraud and don’t make the big headlines....