Charities have lost £8.6m to fraudsters in the last year, according to data analysed by Action Frau and published by the Charity Commission to mark Charity Fraud Awareness Week. Action Fraud collated 1,059 separate incidents reported by charities last year, but warned that this could be an under-estimate of the scale of the problem.
A separate survey of 70 charities it was found that nearly two-thirds were concerned that the pandemic had increased the risk of fraud, whilst on 10 of those surveyed invested anything in fraud prevention.
The Charity Commission has called on charity trustees to sign up to a new Stop Fraud Pledge, which commits to taking practical steps to combat fraud. These include appointing a named individual to oversee counter-fraud work across the charity and making regular checks to update policies.
