The Charity Commission has updated its guidance on fraud and cybercrime after revealing that it opened more than 700 of such cases over the last year.
Between November 2023 and October 2024, the regulator opened 603 fraud and 99 cybercrime-related cases and received 264 serious incident reports relating to fraud.
The number of fraud cases the regulator opened increased in 2023-24 from 535 the year before while cybercrime-related cases dipped from 102 in 2022-23.
The regulator said that phishing attempts were the most common type of cyber-enabled fraud charities experienced last year.
Despite last year’s increase in cases, the commission said that fraud remains underreported as many charities hesitate to report such incidents.
The regulator encouraged more charities to inform it of fraud incidents as “reporting enables trustees to get the support they need and means there is a more accurate picture of how fraud is affecting the sector”.
‘More concise’ guidance
The commission said its two separate pieces of guidance on cybercrime and fraud, developed with support from the National Cyber Security Centre, are “more concise and easier to use” than its previous advice.
Its cybercrime guidance contains instructions for small, medium and large charities and includes the types of cybercrime charities could encounter.
The commission’s fraud guidance provides instructions on what to do when charities encounter fraud or attempted fraud.
It also encourages charities to use its internal financial controls guidance (CC8) to manage their financial activity and to prevent fraud and losses.
‘Small, inexpensive steps’
Mazeda Alam, head of guidance and practice at the commission, said: “Protecting your charity from fraud and cybercrime can understandably seem daunting, but there are many small, inexpensive steps charities can take to reduce the risk of any potential internal or external fraudster being successful.
“Introducing a simple measure such as having dual authorisation for all financial transactions can help avoid these issues arising – which are often opportunistic.
“It is every trustee’s responsibility to ensure they’ve done all they reasonably can to protect their charity from harm – reading our guidance is the best place to start.”
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