BUSINESS BRIEFING. Check it out:
(The Mail on Sunday Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) CORPORATE identity theft is on the increase and is set to cost businesses GBP700 million a year by 2020. Big companies, and those based in London, are likely to suffer the greatest losses, according to a study by insurer Royal & SunAlliance.
But smaller companies are warned that the cost to them is greater per employee than a larger business and can cause greater damage.
Scotland Yard estimates that fraudsters who steal companies' identities to order goods and services in their name cost businesses GBP50 million a year.
But firms employing between ten and 19 staff could find their share of the cost soaring to GBP125 million a year by 2020 if this type of organised crime goes unchecked.
.. POLITICAL parties are failing to get their enterprise message across to small companies and most bosses do not know which MPs are responsible for small business issues.
The Forum of Private Business found that only a third of small firms knew that Margaret Hodge was the Minister for Industry and the Regions, responsible for small businesses. One in five bosses of small firms had never heard of her.
Only eight per cent were aware that Mark Prisk is the Conservative spokesman for business and enterprise. And the Liberal Democrats' small business spokeswoman Lorely Burt only registered with four per cent of small business owners.
Forum spokeswoman Victoria Carson says: 'As the party conference season begins, this is a timely reminder to politicians that a vast number of voters who own smaller businesses are being left out in the cold.'
Copyright 2006 The Mail on Sunday.
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
