Goodness, hasn’t it grown since last year

Every parent has a collection of baby photos. They were nice to look at when they were just taken, but the real fun comes when you compare your offspring to how they used to look. In the same way, the second Unisys annual survey into the impact of fraud on e-commerce, whose results were released in mid-October, is even more telling and thought-provoking when compared with its predecessor from October 1999. Sue Grossey discusses the findings.

Sue Grossey is a research analyst with Unisys UK Limited, and writes on fraud, money laundering and related issues. For a copy of the Unisys Annual Fraud Survey 2000, or to discuss the issues it raises and how to tackle them, please contact Sue by telephoning +44 (0)7808 391191 or by e-mailing

In order to create the basis for comparison with the results gleaned in 1999, the Unisys survey team asked almost the same questions as last year, with one new section. The survey was sent to over 1,150 UK financial services companies, and the response rate was a shade over ten per cent. For some reason, this year’s most responsive institutions were building societies, which provided over a quarter of the responses. Despite reassurances of confidentiality, 47 per cent of respondents replied anonymously (up from 41 per cent in 1999). This reticence is not surprising given that institutions are generally reluctant to admit that they have been targeted by fraudsters.