Economic Crime, Fraud Continue to Plague Indian Companies; 57% In India Are ‘Platform’ Frauds: PwC India

The onset of the pandemic has led to an increase in platform fraud, a novel form of economic crime that involves fraudulent activities associated with social media, e-commerce, enterprise and fintech platforms. The surge in remote work, e-commerce, delivery applications and contactless payments has further contributed to the rise of this type of fraud, according to a report by PwC.

“A total of 57 per cent of all fraud incidents in India were platform fraud. More than 26 per cent of Indian organisations lost over $1 million due to platform fraud, and 44 per cent of the perpetrators were found to commit fraud for financial gain,” PwC said in its latest report, titled ‘Platforms: The New Frontier of Fraud in India’.

The ‘Platforms: The New Frontier of Fraud in India’ is the second edition of PwC’s ‘Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022: India Insights’.

Economic crime and fraud continue to be a significant challenge for Indian companies, with 66 per cent of organisations experiencing at least one form of economic crime in the past two years as per the first edition of the report.

“Platforms have emerged as a new avenue for committing economic crime. The survey highlights that 99 per cent of fraud incidents in the past 24 months have been on platforms such as financial, social media, goods, enterprises, media sharing, knowledge sharing and services,” the report added.

It also said among the motives identified in such cases, financial gain is the most prevalent, with 44 per cent of perpetrators in India engaging in such activities for monetary reasons. Brand damage is another common motive cited by 32 per cent of the surveyed organisations, followed by competitive advantage at 21 per cent.

Unfortunately, platform fraud is continuously evolving and spreading rapidly, which is concerning for Indian companies, said the PwC report.

Puneet Garkhel, partner and leader (forensic services) at PwC India, said, “Indian consumers and organisations have been rapidly embracing new platforms over the past few years. On average, an Indian company operates with five different platforms as part of its regular business activities today. The emergence of and surge in e-commerce, contactless payments, home delivery models, remote working, etc., have not only led to various platform-based innovations but also opened avenues of entry for fraudsters. Organisations need to be cognisant of these evolving threats and adequately invest in fraud prevention and detection strategies to safeguard themselves.”

Enterprise platforms are a prime target for malware, phishing, money laundering and ransomware. The threat of ransomware, in particular, has grown to an alarming level. Financial frauds on transactions made to or from platforms accounted for 89 per cent of all platform frauds.

“Business leaders are often unaware of their exposure to platform fraud, as they do not view platforms as a distinct sector with common risk considerations. Instead, they treat each platform as a separate vendor with its own threat profile. As transaction processing shifts to platforms, the obligation towards security is also transferred, but many platforms are not equipped to identify, prevent and mitigate fraud like banks are,” Puneet said.