Theft tops economic crime list

Theft has risen to the top of the list as the number one economic crime impacting Australian businesses, a recent survey has revealed.

The theft of assets and funds was the largest economic crime committed against organisations, with cybercrime following closely behind.

In the last 12 months almost half of Australian businesses were the victim of at least one incident of economic crime.

Economic crime included asset misappropriation, employee expense fraud and fraudulent invoicing.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, conducted by PwC, cybercrime was emerging as the biggest growing threat to businesses with its low costs, high rewards and anonymity broadly appealing.