Small and medium-sized businesses across Ireland are being warned to tighten their digital defenses after new figures revealed a staggering €17 million loss to email-related fraud over the past two years.
The figures, released today by Fraud SMART, the fraud awareness initiative from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) paint a worrying picture of how vulnerable businesses are, particularly when it comes to invoice-redirection scams.
On average, each affected business lost around €11,500 a sum that could significantly derail a small enterprise's cash flow, especially in today's already challenging economy.
"These scams are clever. They don't come waving red flags," said Niamh Davenport, Head of Financial Crime at BPFI. "They often start with what looks like a perfectly normal email from a trusted supplier except that email has either been hacked or cloned by fraudsters."
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According to BPFI, the most common trick involves fraudsters sending an email pretending to be from a supplier, claiming their bank details have changed.
When the SME makes its next payment, the money vanishes into a fake account. Between January 2023 and December 2024 alone, these scams cost Irish businesses €15.7 million.
Even more alarming is the rise of CEO impersonation scams, which cost another €1.7 million. In these cases, a fraudster poses as a senior executive, pressuring staff often via email — to urgently transfer funds or share sensitive information.
To combat this growing threat, FraudSMART has teamed up with the Irish SME Association (ISME) to roll out a nationwide fraud awareness campaign specifically targeting small business owners and employees.
Recent survey data from BPFI and ISME shows that 68% of Irish SMEs have been targeted by scammers in the past year with a whopping 89% of those attacks coming through email. Yet despite these threats, nearly one in three SMEs still have no formal fraud training or awareness programs in place.
"This is not just a financial issue it's a real business survival risk," said Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME. "It's time fraud prevention became as normal as accounting or customer service in small businesses."
He urged SME leaders to take fraud awareness seriously by introducing regular staff training and clear security protocols for email communication and payment processing.
The campaign aims not only to educate but to empower. As McDonnell put it, "Your best line of defense isn't just your firewall it's your people."
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