Business and Payments Fraud

Payment fraud is quite prevalent in today’s business environment, and it is not isolated to one industry, business size or payment type. Last year, 74% of organizations surveyed by the Association for Financial Professionals were targets of payment scams. That’s down from the prior year but up from the ten year low of 60% in 2013. The top 3 forms of attempted payment fraud were 66% checks, 39% wires and 34% ACH debits. Not to be understated, commercial cards were 4th at 24% of attempted fraud. Notably, payment card fraud is expected to continue increasing to a project $35.6 billion in 2023.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Business Email Compromise, payment fraud targeted through email, is a critical channel to protect.  This is especially true for employees who have access to banking information.  Ensure your team verifies requests for payment. Verify email addresses, identities and URLs. 
2. Reporting fraud quickly is important for adequate remediation, protecting you from further losses and possibly tracking down fraudsters and funds. 
3. Protect yourself from computer intrusion and ransomware.  Put in place processes, Information Technology resources, software and training. 
4. Any and all of your devices can contribute to your information security.  Be aware of what you’re doing, through what devices and where you are. 

Fraud mitigation tools can help you:

• Contact Treasury Management for information to protect your business from fraud.
• Online Banking Security Tools. Follow best practices, including how you set and secure passwords, dual authorization, and setting up alerts, to name a few. 
• ACH Origination.  Use fewer checks to keep your account information from being out in the public.  The encrypted, secure platform allows you to sends payments digitally. 
• Credit Cards or Purchasing Cards. Can help you set up automated payments, controls and reporting to enhance efficiency and security. 
• ACH Positive Pay.  Validate that batches of ACH payments are ok to clear, gating unauthorized ACH debits from coming out of your account. Set the rules that can stop abnormal transactions. 
• Check Positive Pay.  We can help you validate that checks are ok to clear, based on your check register.  If a fraudster exploits your checks, you can stop the payments before they hit your account. 
• Protecting receivables coming from your customers is just as important, for you and for them. Remote Deposit Capture allows you to scan checks securely from your office, avoiding the paper shuffle that is prone to fraud and errors, along with the time and money spent driving to the bank.  As customers send all remittances, you can also securely process their documents and payment information through a banking operations center with our Lockbox services.