Internal B2B Payment Fraudsters Wreak Havoc On Businesses

The business email compromise (BEC) scam remains a massive threat to companies. But sometimes, the biggest fraud risk can be found within the enterprise.

This week’s B2B Data Digest looks at the latest figures behind B2B payments fraud and finds more cases in which a company’s own employee can be traced back to payroll and accounts payable (AP) scams.

Two teenagers in Ireland are now under investigation by police for a suspected invoice fraud scam, the Irish Examiner reported. The arrests are part of an investigation into BEC scams, a fraud tactic in which individuals pose as legitimate suppliers or executives to request payment on an invoice. With the latest arrests, officials have now arrested 19 people as part of the BEC operation.

$44,104 in excess payroll payments were reportedly taken by a former employee of a Tennessee senior care facility, CBS affiliate WVLT revealed. An individual has been arrested in the case after an investigation found the former employee manipulated payroll and issued 66 excess payroll payments to herself. The fraud allegedly involved manipulating payroll data and creating a fake employee within the company’s payroll system to facilitate the payments.

$250,000 was allegedly stolen from a veterinary clinic in Georgia from a former employee, with the Rome News-Tribune revealing that the individual has pleaded guilty to the accusations. The individual managed bill payments and AP to vet supply vendors for the clinic and allegedly falsified mortgage and personal card payments. The scam began to unravel when the clinic’s owner received a call from one supplier notifying an outstanding bill of $150,000. A forensic audit performed by an external accountant revealed the full extent of the fraud.

$1.5 million was allegedly swindled from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by one Florida individual. The Credit Union Times reported that the individual has pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraud, with prosecutors alleging he forged PPP documentation to obtain funds from credit unions and bank. The PPP initiative continues to be a favorite target of fraudsters. Last week, law enforcement officials revealed that $100 million worth of PPP funds had been illegally obtained and laundered via digital investment platforms..

$4.5 million was taken from a company by a former employee via an invoice payments scam, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In a press release, the DOJ revealed that the individual, who was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison, was found to have forged invoices from a fake supplier to her employer. Her role in accounting and finance at the company allowed her to pay those invoices into her personal account. As the DOJ revealed, even when her employer migrated to a new payment processing system, the individual established a fake vendor account within the system, falsifying the documents needed to establish the account. The scam reportedly involved forging colleagues’ signatures on checks and using colleagues’ login credentials to approve of the payments.