Fraudsters’ ability to take advantage of new technology, impersonate trusted vendors and exploit your business is more impressive than ever, resulting in billions of dollars lost from businesses in all 50 states and more than 170 countries since 2013, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Here’s how it works: A fraudster hacks the email of a vendor you trust. The fraudster sends you a seemingly normal email asking for an automated clearing house (ACH) or wire-transfer payment for something like an invoice or missed payment. You trust that vendor, so you comply – but just like that, you’ve sent a payment which may not be recoverable and made your business vulnerable to future fraud.
Here are five things your business can do to help steer clear of this scam, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center:
- Establish secondary approval processes for your business – processes like calling a trusted business contact to confirm a payment request.
- Be cautious of sudden changes in business practices, like if a new contact from a business reaches out or if a trusted contact’s communications seem off.
- Verify any change requests from vendors with a trusted contact.
- Confirm requests for wire transfers, especially if they seem out of the ordinary.
- Educate your employees, especially those who communicate with vendors regularly.
Arvest Cash Manager is also a crucial first line of defense against sophisticated scammers.
ACH Fraud Blocker in Cash Manager helps businesses monitor and control who may post ACH debits to their account. Here’s how it works:
- Your business provides an authorized list of companies who may debit your account.
- ACH Fraud Blocker compares all attempted debits to the authorized list for your account.
- You will receive notifications of any suspicious activity and be given the option to either authorize or reject the payment.
Dealing with sophisticated scammers shouldn’t take away from serving your community and growing your business. The team at Arvest Treasury Management wants to help you and your business focus on serving and growing – and these tips and tools to avoid ACH and wire payment fraud can help you do that.
Questions about fraud prevention, Cash Manager and more can be directed to Treasury Management Customer Service at TMCustomerService@arvest.com or (877) 849-2274 option #1.
Click here to read more from Arvest about protecting your business from fraud.
At Arvest, we know protecting your business is high priority, and we’re here to help.