Invoice Fraud

We’ve seen an uptick lately in invoice fraud where I work. The formula is thus: Scammers make up an email chain (to create a sense of urgency or legitimacy) and then send that email to someone in accounting within an organization. The goal, obviously, is to trick someone into paying a fake invoice to a scammer.

There are a few signs that the invoice is fake. The most common sign is that the invoice comes from a vendor that an organization isn’t working with. Another sign is that the grammar and language syntax seem off. Another big sign is the use of the word “kindly” as a synonym for please–as in ‘kindly send this to’ or ‘kindly direct questions to’ or phrases like that. We’ve also found that the invoice is “generated” by a made-up employee of the organization.

To make sure fraudulent invoices are deleted, we’ve found a couple of things that help us. First, check and double check if a vendor is in the organization’s accounting system. If it’s an invoice from a new organization, and there hasn’t been anything to create a relationship between organization and vendor, then there’s a good chance it’s fraud. The other thing is that we send invoices around within the company just in case there are any questions. It’s worked in the past.

It’s a scary world out there. Be careful!