Average losses from fraud are on the rise, according to a new report. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study, Economic crime: people, culture and controls looked at 5428 companies in 40 countries, and over 43 per cent reported suffering one or more economic crimes over the last two years. This is no change from 2005, but six percentage points up on 2003. And that's a worry because of the significant investment many companies have made in fraud prevention over the last few years.

The study found that the average company's loss from fraud over two years increased from US$ 2.4 million to US$ 3.2 million. And that's up from the figure of US$ 1.7 million recorded in 2005. Total losses over the two years was $4.2 billion. And that's just the stuff they were aware of.

The other worrying part is that management's attempts to detect fraud are not that impressive. In 2007, 41 per cent of frauds were detected by chance, up seven percentage points in the past two years.

The report also suggests that globalization is leaving companies vulnerable. Of the 43 per cent of companies that reported an increase in economic crime, 76 per cent blamed it on an external party and over one third of those said that external party was located in a foreign country.