Best practices to reduce payment fraud

Email is a popular target for cyber crimes — learn how you can protect your business against fraud.

 

2 minute read

 

  • Review procedures for updating account and payment information. All internal and external requests for payments or changes to account information should be validated through a different method than the original inquiry.
  • Don’t rely on email alone for payment information. Pick up the phone and contact the appropriate person to verify or question changes to payment instructions.
  • Separate duties for accounts and payments, and require dual approvals for any change to account or payment instructions.
  • Contact the appropriate person through predefined communications channels to verify vendor contacts and account information.
  • Determine your risk tolerance and setup processes, such as alerts or dual approvers for payments deemed risky.
  • Manage email account access and require multifactor authentication.
  • Disable automatic forwarding and monitor the inbox rules.
  • Ask employees with payment-making responsibilities to limit what they post on social media sites.
  • Employees should separate personal and professional email accounts and shouldn't reuse the same password on multiple sites.
  • Routinely train employees to recognize business email compromise threats and identify the various techniques. Provide in-depth training for employees most likely to be targeted such as the CEO, CFO and those in finance, payroll and HR departments.
  • Keep software and systems up to date and protect your data with strong encryption and regular backups.

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