Fraudsters are always looking for ways to take advantage of trusted relationships, such as between a business and their established vendors. The fraudster's goal is to trick the business into thinking they are paying their vendor when the dollars are actually being diverted to the crook. A common scheme is for a business to receive instructions on a spoofed but legitimate-seeming e-mailed invoice to send a wire transfer to the vendor or business partner immediately. The business may pay, not realizing until it's too late that the funds are actually going to a fraudster or money mule. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently issued a scam alert on this scheme noting reported losses averaging $55,000, with some losses exceeding $800,000.

Criminals can perpetrate this type of fraud in many ways. Devon Marsh, an operational risk manager at Wells Fargo and chairman of the Risk Management Advisory Group for NACHA–the Electronic Payments Association, addressed some of the ways at a Payments 2014 conference session "Supply Chain Fraud Necessitates Authentication for Everyone," including these:

  • Calling or e-mailing the business, pretending to be the vendor, to change payment instructions
  • Sending counterfeit invoices that appear genuine because they are patterned after actual invoices obtained through a breach of the business's e-mail system or a vendor's accounts receivable system

Marsh also discussed important ways to reduce the risk of falling victim to these schemes. As with any e-mail that seems questionable, the business should verify the legitimacy of the vendor's request by reaching out to the vendor with a phone call—and not using the number on the questionable e-mail or invoice. The business should also educate its accounts payable department to review any vendor's payment requests carefully, verifying that the goods or services were received or performed and questioning and checking on anything at all that does not look right, such as an incorrect or different vendor name or e-mail address.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's 2011 supplement to its guidance stresses the need in an internet environment for financial institutions to authenticate their customers. The concepts this guidance addresses are also sound practices for businesses to use in authenticating their vendors.

Photo of Deborah ShawBy Deborah Shaw, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed