Page 30 - Insurance Times Janaury 2021

THEFT IS ON THE

RISE DURING

COVID-19: 3

CRIME RISKS TO

WATCH

T he halting of economic activity and rapid shift to social engineering scams -- have jumped in both

remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic has
frequency and severity. Where losses in the tens or
hurt businesses in many ways. State-mandated
hundreds of thousands were once considered
closures, disrupted supply chains, and stressed IT
infrastructure are just some causes of loss. significant, it is not uncommon now to see figures in the
millions or tens of millions.
In 2019, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
Unfortunately, the crisis has also created opportunities for received 23,775 reports of business email compromise
criminals looking to take advantage of heightened with total losses exceeding $1.7 billion.
uncertainty. In particular, theft is on the rise, costing
companies millions on top of other COVID-related losses. Fraudsters are becoming bolder, exploiting "COVID
fatigue" among remote workforces.
Here are three types of theft exacerbated by the ongoing It's a scenario many of us are all too familiar with by
pandemic, and how businesses can reduce their exposure
now: employees working from home are suddenly
to this criminal activity: attempting to juggle a full-time job with childcare and
1. Illegitimate funds transfer requests perpetrated via home schooling demands, pets crashing conference
business email compromise
calls, checking in on elderly parents - all while coping
Fraudulent fund transfer requests stemming from
with the stress and uncertainty created by the
business email compromise - more commonly known as
pandemic.
About the author Mistakes are inevitable in this environment, and internal
fraud detection protocols may suffer. Maybe an
Gregory W. Bangs employee who normally pores over vendor invoices
Senior Vice President, begins to approve them automatically, without checking
Crime Regional Leader for inventory. Maybe checks and balances in place to
North America at AXA XL
authenticate transfer requests are bypassed. Maybe red
30 The Insurance Times, January 2021