Fraud risk increased significantly during the pandemic and is expected to continue well into next year. Here are some areas where you can expect to see growth in 2022:

Data breaches - Breaches increased 33% from 2018 to 2019. They rose 273% in the first quarter of 2020 and are expected to proliferate in 2022. Small businesses in particular will be particularly vulnerable.

Internal fraud - The considerable mental and financial stress of the pandemic will continue to weigh on some employees. As a result, they may turn to larceny, financial statement fraud, bribery, or cash theft to cope.

Geo-targeted Phishing - 1 in 8 employees inadvertently share info on phishing sites. Almost 32% of all data breaches result from phishing emails. In 2022, the threat will become more personalized and targeted.

Remote Work Exploited - As more attackers enter the market with malware-as-a-service campaigns, virtual private networks and their providers will be hit with brute force attacks, targeting the tools distributed workforces use.

Four anti-fraud controls in the ACFE's 2020 Report to the Nations reduced both fraud losses and duration by 50% or more:

While smaller organizations are more likely to lack internal controls, larger companies are more likely to have their controls overridden.

"Cyberfraud is rampant throughout the year," according to a recent Wall St. Journal article, "but crooks press even harder during the holidays when people are often too distracted and frazzled to see through scams."

For example, discount scams lure potential victims to bogus ads that capture personally identifiable information or credit card data.

Shipping scams involve an email that tells you that your package is delayed and that you can get it expedited by clicking a link.

With travel phishing, scammers send you an email indicating that your booking has been canceled. The message sends you to a spoof site where you enter your credit card information to get a new reservation.

You can protect yourself from holiday fraud by implementing some simple strategies:

IAS can help you identify, deter, investigate and resolve fraud in your company. We can audit your internal controls, create a loss prevention and internal audit program, conduct loss prevention workshops, and most importantly investigate suspected fraud.

Our investigations can obtain signed confessions, restitution and even prosecutions.