Crime and fraud protection

Crime insurance is suitable for all sizes and types of business. SMEs should not overlook crime insurance, as they can be at high risk of crime if their security and resources are more limited.

Here are out top 7 reasons to buy crime insurance:
 
1. Econonomic crime is rising and when economies are depressed, fraud rises. Economic crime is becoming more prevalent within both large and small companies. Stay one step ahead by arranging crime insurance.
 
2. Brand reputation can be damaging. Crime can cause damage to reputation, brand and relationships. Prevention is better than cure, minimise risk by implementing robust internal controls.

3. The threat is closer than you think. Although it’s hard to accept, employee fraud and theft is fairly common. Middle and senior managers have more access and knowledge of the business systems, creating more opportunity for crime.

4. Question of when, not if The threat is diversifying, with business being targeted by; employees, agents, customers, vendors, hackers, organised criminal gangs and unknown third parties. Any business would find it difficult to protect themselves from so many threats.

5. New and emerging threats The fraud landscape is constantly growing, meaning a fraudster only needs one success, whilst a business needs to continuously work to prevent such frauds from occurring.

6. What’s the difference? Crime and cyber insurance are often mistaken. Crime cover is there to protect financial assets, whereas a cyber policy is there to cover your data risk and obligations.

7. Peace of mind Should the worst happen and you are a victim of financial crime, comprehensive crime insurance can provide essential balance sheet protection. Having insurance in place could be the difference between making a profit or making a loss. Can you risk not to buy crime insurance?

Here are some examples of crime losses that have directly affected our clients:

Fake president fraud
The FD of a large interior design client, turning over around £80,000,000, paid three invoices totaling £225,000 without checking the supplier bank details. The invoices were fraudulent and the money was sent to the perpetrator’s accounts in Czech Republic. Luckily there were multiple frauds being undertaken and £150,000 of the client’s payments were held when the accounts were frozen. Whilst the client has lost £70,000 it is hoped that the remainder will be returned in full.

Employee system breach and theft
An employee / employees of a client obtained passwords to the till computer system that they were not authorised to have. They used these to access the system and delete transactions from the days takings. They then took cash to the value of the deleted transactions so that the till ‘balanced’. The irregular pattern of deleted transactions was picked up and investigations ensued, which led to the full extent of the loss being discovered (circa £50K).

Fraudulent change of bank details in genuine email
A supply and distribution client had genuine email communication with a supplier, but embedded within the email chain was a fraudulent notification regarding a change of bank details. Payment of approximately £115,000 was made to the ‘new’ bank details which were subsequently discovered to be false. This client did not have crime insurance in place. Arrange your crime insurance package with CLEAR.