Fraudulent Payments

Do you have any suggestions for how I can reduce the risk of our customers being scammed into paying money into fraudulent accounts? We’re a manufacturing business with most of our customers paying us on account. Recently our company seems to have become a target. It has come to my attention that a number of our customers have received letters asking them to update the bank account details that they have for us. My concern is firstly that I don’t want any of our customers to fall for this, and secondly I’m concerned that if a customer does fall for it, they might not have the cash available to pay us, or even try to argue that we should take the loss.

A sad reality is that scamming is big business. It’s lucrative. And with the continuing advancements in technology it’s almost too easy for the fraudsters to commit their crimes and get away with it. A prudent business owner needs to consider every avenue to reduce their risk of being impacted. In this case you could consider a two-pronged approach:

• Firstly, bring this to your customers’ attention, given that you are aware that your business has been targeted. Advise them to always contact you and verify any change of bank details notice that purports to originate from your company, no matter how legitimate the notice may appear.

Secondly, include a standard clause into your documents (such as terms and conditions, invoices, notice of bank details) requiring your customers to contact your company and verify any change of bank details notice they may receive.