PwC’s Thailand Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2020

Staying on top of a never-ending war

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Economic Crime and Fraud Servey – Staying on top of a never-ending war

This year’s survey shows a drop in reported incidents from 2018, but this could indicate that fraudsters are winning the war by evolving their methods and using new technologies to breach defences. So we believe a lot of fraud is going undetected.

33% of Thai companies were affected by fraud, corruption or other economic crimes during the last two years.

66% of those that were affected by fraud discovered one to five incidents during the last two years.

Two of thirds of respondents reported that they encountered between one and five attacks. Almost one in ten (9%) were hit more than ten times.

The most common types of fraud they experienced were asset misappropriation, procurement fraud, and bribery and corruption.

Looking first at internal crime, the majority of cases in Thailand were done by operations staff, followed by middle and senior management.

59% of fraud was perpetrated by insiders, and 18% was from collusion with someone on the inside. Just 16% of fraud incidents was from an external party acting alone.

30% of fraud was detected by whistleblowers and tip-offs.

Almost one-third of crimes were discovered by someone alerting the company, either by informal tip-off (20%) or a formal whistleblowing hotline (10%).
Although investment in whistleblowing programmes should continue, other crime detection channels shouldn't be neglected as Thai companies are trailing their global peers in many detection areas.

“The battle against fraud, corruption and other economic crimes is a never ending one, and companies can pay a steep price if they leave themselves exposed.”

Contact us

Phansak Sethsathira

Partner, PwC Thailand

Tel: +66 (0) 2844 1000

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