Wherever money flows on the internet, scammers are not far behind in gaining illicit funds.
Invoice fraud is but one of many ways that malicious agents can fool people out of their hard-earned money.
Here, we’ll explore the different ways of invoice fraud, and how to protect yourself.
What Is Invoice Fraud?
Invoice fraud is a blanket term that covers scams that target the invoicing process.
No matter which side you’re on, the result is the same.
Scammers manipulate or cheat the system so that they’re the ones getting paid.
As such, it’s important to catch invoice fraud before the money is paid into the wrong hands.
But it can happen if the hacker sends the right invoice at the right time.
Some especially sneaky scammers use official PayPal invoices to scam you.
The scammer then sends over their bank details as the replacement.
As such, your defense methods depend on which end of the transaction you’re on.
Ensure someone hasn’t tweaked where the payment should go before sending your invoice off to the customer.
Also, be sure to protect your online accounts with anunforgettable, unbreakable passwordand enabletwo-factor authenticationif available.
Finally, you want to avoid making mistakes that may make you look like a scammer to your client.
Never send the same invoice twice, and double-check that the services you’ve performed are listed correctly.
Failure to do so may cause your client to believe you’re trying to scam them.
Practice caution with generating and handling invoices and ensure scammers don’t end up getting someone else’s payday.
