Platform fraud is constantly evolving and spreading quickly, which is regarding for Indian firms, says a PwC report. (Image: PTI/File)
More than 26 per cent of Indian organisations misplaced over $1 million due to platform fraud, says PwC report
The onset of the pandemic has led to a rise in platform fraud, a novel type of financial crime that entails fraudulent actions related to social media, e-commerce, enterprise and fintech platforms. The surge in distant work, e-commerce, supply functions and contactless funds has additional contributed to the rise of the sort of fraud, in accordance to a report by PwC.
“A complete of 57 per cent of all fraud incidents in India have been platform fraud. More than 26 per cent of Indian organisations misplaced over $1 million due to platform fraud, and 44 per cent of the perpetrators have been discovered to commit fraud for monetary acquire,” PwC said in its latest report, titled ‘Platforms: The New Frontier of Fraud in India’.
The ‘Platforms: The New Frontier of Fraud in India’ is the second edition of PwC’s ‘Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022: India Insights’.
Economic crime and fraud continue to be a significant challenge for Indian companies, with 66 per cent of organisations experiencing at least one form of economic crime in the past two years as per the first edition of the report.
“Platforms have emerged as a new avenue for committing economic crime. The survey highlights that 99 per cent of fraud incidents in the past 24 months have been on platforms such as financial, social media, goods, enterprises, media sharing, knowledge sharing and services,” the report added.
It additionally mentioned among the many motives recognized in such circumstances, monetary acquire is essentially the most prevalent, with 44 per cent of perpetrators in India partaking in such actions for financial causes. Brand harm is one other frequent motive cited by 32 per cent of the surveyed organisations, adopted by aggressive benefit at 21 per cent.
Unfortunately, platform fraud is constantly evolving and spreading quickly, which is regarding for Indian firms, mentioned the PwC report.
Puneet Garkhel, companion and chief (forensic providers) at PwC India, mentioned, “Indian customers and organisations have been quickly embracing new platforms over the previous few years. On common, an Indian firm operates with 5 completely different platforms as a part of its common enterprise actions at this time. The emergence of and surge in e-commerce, contactless funds, house supply fashions, distant working, and so on., haven’t solely led to numerous platform-based improvements but additionally opened avenues of entry for fraudsters. Organisations want to be cognisant of those evolving threats and adequately spend money on fraud prevention and detection methods to safeguard themselves.”
Enterprise platforms are a prime target for malware, phishing, money laundering and ransomware. The threat of ransomware, in particular, has grown to an alarming level. Financial frauds on transactions made to or from platforms accounted for 89 per cent of all platform frauds.
“Business leaders are often unaware of their exposure to platform fraud, as they do not view platforms as a distinct sector with common risk considerations. Instead, they treat each platform as a separate vendor with its own threat profile. As transaction processing shifts to platforms, the obligation towards security is also transferred, but many platforms are not equipped to identify, prevent and mitigate fraud like banks are,” Puneet mentioned.
