What is payment fraud prevention in accounts payable?
Payment fraud prevention is the set of controls that stop a business from paying fraudsters, through fake invoices, changed supplier bank details, impersonation of executives or suppliers, or duplicate and altered payments. In accounts payable it combines checks on supplier data, approvals and segregation of duties, payee name checks and software that flags unusual payments before they are released.
Also calledAP fraud preventionvendor fraud preventionbusiness email compromise prevention
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- Main attack
- Changed supplier bank details
- Key control
- Call-back on a known number
- Name checks
- Confirmation / Verification of Payee
How payment fraud prevention works
The most common attack is a request to change a supplier's bank details, sent from a compromised or look-alike email address. The key control is to verify any change by calling the supplier on a number already on file, never one in the request, and to hold payments to newly changed accounts for review. Other controls include separating who can edit supplier records from who can approve payments, validating bank details at onboarding, matching invoices to orders, and screening for duplicates. Payee name checks now help too: Confirmation of Payee in the UK, and in the EU Verification of Payee, required from 9 October 2025, warn when the name does not match the account. Software adds rules and pattern analysis across all payments. Tipalti validates supplier payment details and screens payees, and BILL verifies vendor accounts and applies approval controls.
Common questions
What is business email compromise?+
A fraud in which criminals use a hacked or look-alike email account to pose as a supplier or executive and ask for a payment or a change of bank details.
How should AP teams handle a request to change bank details?+
Confirm it by phone with a known contact using a number already on file, have a second person approve the change, and review the first payment to the new account.
What is Verification of Payee?+
A check, required in the EU from 9 October 2025, that compares the payee name with the name on the account before a euro transfer is sent. The UK's equivalent is Confirmation of Payee.
AP software that prevents payment fraud
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage · Glossary
