Small and medium-sized businesses have lost over €17m through email-related scams over the past two years, new figures show today.
The figures from FraudSMART, the fraud awareness initiative led by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland, show that companies were conned out of an average of €11,500.
FraudSMART said today it is partnering with ISME to launch a new fraud awareness campaign for SMEs.
It said the majority of cases it sees are invoice-redirection scams, with losses of €15.7m reported between January 2023 and December 2024.
FraudSMART explains that these scams often start with what appears to be a legitimate email from a supplier known to the business, but which has been hacked or closely copied by fraudsters.
They usually do not request any payment upfront but claim to have moved to a new bank account and ask for their payment details to be updated for future invoices.
When a legitimate invoice is issued by the supplier at a later date, the business ends up paying it into the “new account” controlled by the fraudster.
It also said that CEO impersonation scams accounted for losses of €1.7m during the same period.
These scams can be even more deceptive where fraudsters impersonate a company’s senior executive in order to convince an employee to disclose sensitive information or make an unauthorised financial transaction.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Niamh Davenport, Head of Financial Crime at BPFI, said a recent survey conducted with ISME showed that 68% of SMEs have been targeted with scams within the past year and 89% of these businesses report being targeted through email.
“However, while the vast majority of businesses have some security measures in place, such as verification processes for new bank account details (94%), almost a third (31%) of businesses do not have specific fraud awareness guidelines and training programmes for employees,” she added.
Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME, said today’s findings emphasise just how exposed SMEs are to financial fraud.
“This is not a marginal issue – it’s a major business risk,” he stated.
“While it’s encouraging to see that many are putting some fraud prevention measures in place, we need to ensure this becomes standard across all small businesses,” he said.
He noted that employees in particular are often the ones targeted by fraudsters and therefore have a key role to play at the frontline of fraud prevention.
“I urge all SMEs to put training in place to ensure their workforce, at every level of the business, are constantly aware of current fraud risks and how to avoid falling victim to scammers,” he added.
