New nationwide research, conducted by unbiased.co.uk, shows the industries most affected by scams included IT/Comms, whereby 44% admitted to having been scammed more than once, HR reporting 43% and Shipping 37%. A third of those working in Computer hardware admitted to having been scammed on multiple occasions, compared 29% of those working in Banking and 22% in Accounting.

Of the industries surveyed, the professions scammed the least were Government/Public Sector (16% scammed more than once) and Food/Beverage (12%).

From their own internal research, Unbiased found that many of their financial advisors had experienced up to five scam attempts each month.  Scams from HMRC seem to be the worst offenders, with over half of the respondents having found themselves targeted. 

Yet despite these huge threats, financial advice businesses seem to be slow when it comes to exploring security options such as SSO (single sign on) and half of Unbiased’s respondents admitted that they have no scam reporting process or policy in place, despite widespread industry agreement that scams put their company at risk.

Karen Barrett, Founder and CEO of unbiased.co.uk comments: “, As an industry that encourages best practices for advisers using our platform when it comes to keeping financial information and customer data safe and secure, we should be setting an example and taking the threat of scamming seriously. With scamming on the increase, for businesses or individuals seeking current, practical advice, unbiased.co.uk is a good place to start.”

Unbiased currently connects over 27,000 trusted financial advisors with people in need.