However, the sixth annual Global Fraud Survey form Kroll Advisory Solutions – reported by Law.com’s Corporate Counsel magazine – also found that insider threats are becoming a key issue for multi-national corporations.
Commenting on the survey – which polled 839 worldwide senior executives – the researchers said: ‘The most striking result of this year’s survey is that there has been notable decline in the level of fraud overall… The proportion of companies reporting that they were affected by at least one incidence of fraud in the past year had dropped for the second year in a row, from 75 per cent to 61 per cent.’

Key perpetrators

The survey also revealed that two thirds of businesses reporting a fraud issue last year cited an insider as a ‘key perpetrator’ – a rise from 60 per cent in 2011and 55 per cent the year before.
Information theft also declined but at a far slower rate than other types of fraud. Reports of this type of threat dropped from 23 per cent last year to 21 per cent. A third of those surveyed added that they felt moderately or highly vulnerable to information theft.