How do invoice scams work?
A company is contacted by someone pretending to be either a supplier, service provider or creditor. The contact may be made by phone, letter, fax or email. The scammer asks that the bank account payment details (e.g. the recipient's bank account details) be changed for future invoices. The new account is actually controlled by the scammer.
What can a company do?
- Make sure that employees are informed about this type of fraud and how to avoid it.
- Implement a procedure to verify the legitimacy of payment requests.
- Advise staff responsible for the payment of invoices to always check for any irregularities.
- Review the information published on your company website, especially the information about contracts and suppliers. Advise employees to limit what they share on social media about the company and their workplace.
- Always contact the police when fraud attempts occur, even if you haven't fallen victim to the fraud.
What can an employee do?
- Check all requests from your creditors, especially if they ask to change their bank details for the payment of invoices.
- Do not use the contact information that you find on the letter, fax or e-mail you received when the change was requested. Refer to the details used for previous communications with the supplier, service provider or creditor.
- Establish appropriate points of contact with the companies to which you make regular payments.
- For payments over a certain threshold, set up a specific procedure to confirm bank details and the correct recipient (e.g. a meeting with the company).
- When an invoice has been paid, send a confirmation email to the recipient. In the email, include the name of the beneficiary bank and the last four digits of the account number.
- Limit the amount of information about your employer that you share on social media.
- Report fraud attempts to your superiors or the relevant department.
- Establish appropriate individual points of contact with the companies to which you make regular payments.
- Limit the amount of information about your employer that you share on social media
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