57% of all fraud incidents in India are ‘platform’ frauds: PwC India

New Delhi: More than half of all fraud incidents in India were ‘platform’ fraud, a novel form of economic crime that involves fraudulent activities associated with social media, e-commerce, enterprise and finTech platforms, said a PwC India report on Thursday.

The onset of the pandemic has led to an increase in platform fraud, said the second edition of PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022: India Insights, titled ‘Platforms: The new frontier of fraud in India’.

“The surge in remote work, e-commerce, delivery applications and contactless payments has further contributed to the rise of this type of fraud. 57 per cent of all fraud incidents in India were platform fraud,” it said.

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, according to PwC’s second edition of ‘Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022: India Insights’.

The findings showed 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.

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.

“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,” said Puneet Garkhel, Partner and Leader, Forensics Services, PwC India.

“Organisations need to be cognisant of these evolving threats and adequately invest in fraud prevention and detection strategies to safeguard themselves,” he added.