E-crime costs UK retailers £205m a year with personal identification-related frauds most-expensive
by Kylene Casanova
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) estimate that the total cost of 'e-crime' to retailers in 2011-12 was at least £205.4 million. Of this, £77.3 million came from actual fraud losses and the rest from related issues such as prevention costs and missing out on legitimate business. The most expensive type of e-crime for retailers was personal identification-related frauds, which cost £20 million in losses. Card fraud is in second place, with £15 million losses to retailers while refund frauds were responsible for £1.2 million.
The BRC says that, although it is harder to quantify the related losses, phishing is also a major problem for merchants, with UK brands the second most targeted in the world, after the US.
The UK has the biggest Internet spend per-capita of any nation and 11% of global online retail sales, but the BRC warns that if e-commerce is to fulfil its potential in boosting the economy, government and law enforcers need to take e-crime more seriously.
Currently, there is little confidence in the state among retailers, with 60% of those surveyed by the BRC saying that it is unlikely they would report any more than 10% of e-crimes to police. To change this, the organisation is calling for consistency on reporting, recording and investigating e-crime across the country and more police resources.
Earlier this year, the EC outlined plans to create a European cyber crime centre to help protect the continent's citizens and businesses from a threat that is thought to claim one million victims around the world every day.
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