Some 68% of SMEs have been targeted by a scam in the last 12 months. However, 31% of SMEs said they did not have specific fraud awareness guidelines as well as training programmes in place. Invoice redirection and CEO impersonation scams remain as top threats to businesses, which have seen average losses of €11,500, the findings say. Invoice redirection fraud occurs when a business receives a fraudulent email or contact claiming to be from an existing supplier/creditor or a staff member within the same company. The fraudster advises that the bank details for the payment of future invoices should be changed or requests that a payment should be made into another account. CEO impersonation fraud takes place when an email purporting to be from the chief executive or a senior member of the team is sent to the finance team requesting that an urgent payment be made. BPFI head of financial crime Niamh Davenport said it was "very concerning" to see the level of scams targeting Irish businesses. "These scams are not only financially damaging, but can also seriously undermine trust within a business," she said. "The majority of cases we are seeing are invoice-direction scams, with losses of €15.7m between January 2023 and December 2024," Ms Davenport added. A new fraud awareness campaign targeting SMEs has been launched by FraudSmart, which will see Irish rugby International Tommy Bowe "coaching" through a series of short videos on social media in the coming weeks. "These findings emphasise just how exposed SMEs are to financial fraud. This is not a marginal issue – it’s a major business risk," ISME chief executive Neil McDonnell said. "While it’s encouraging to see that many are putting some fraud prevention measures in place, we need to ensure this becomes standard across all small businesses. Employees in particular are often the ones targeted by fraudsters and therefore have a key role to play at the frontline of fraud prevention. "I urge all SMEs to put training in place to ensure their workforce, at every level of the business, are constantly aware of current fraud risks and how to avoid falling victim to scammers."