Trustpair’s survey found that payment fraud is a growing concern for corporate financial professionals, with 56% of U.S. companies saying they were victims of a fraud attempt in 2022. About one in three respondents said the number of incidents has increased year over year.
Nearly a quarter of fraud victims said they lost more than $100,000, and 5% reported losing more than $1 million.
To combat the problem, companies have put a wide variety of measures in place, including manual reviews for payment change requests, according to Trustpair’s report. “These manual processes do not seem sufficient to fight fraud, especially considering the evolving nature of fraud,” it said, adding that technology can help finance teams “focus on where the risk really is and reduce low-value tasks.”
Last year, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 21,832 complaints involving fraud attempts via “business email compromise” scams, with adjusted losses totaling over $2.7 billion, according to a report released in March.
With such scams, criminals send an email message with a payment request that appears to come from a known source. This can include an emailed invoice with an updated mailing address from an individual impersonating a vendor.
