E-crime is the most significant emerging threat to the retail sector, and UK companies are the world's second-biggest targets.
So says the British Retail Consortium as it publishes today what it claims to be the first comprehensive survey assessing the make-up and scale of e-crime.

The BRC estimates the total cost of e-crime to retailers over the last year to have been at least £205.4m, and says that, in proportion to the total value of retail sales, e-crime is twice as costly as overall retail crime.

At £205.4m, e-crime represented 0.75% of the £28bn of online retail sales in 2011, whereas the £1.4bn of retail crime as a whole was just 0.36 % of the £303bn value of all retail sales.

The e-crime loss figure includes prevention costs and legitimate business lost as a result of those measures, as well as £77.3m in losses from frauds themselves.

The most expensive type of e-crime for retailers was personal identification-related frauds, producing £20m of losses over the last year. Card fraud was in second place, at £15m, while refund frauds were responsible for £1.2m in losses.

The BRC says that, after the USA, UK brands and companies are the second most targeted in the world, and is now calling for consistency on reporting, recording and investigating e-crime.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson, said: "Online retailing has the potential for huge future commercial expansion but government and police need to take e-crime more seriously if the sector is to maximise its contribution to national economic growth.

"Retailers are investing significantly to protect customers and reduce the costs of e-crime, but law makers and enforcers need to show a similarly strong commitment."