When you picture invoice fraud, what do you see?
A fake vendor? An invoice with an obviously altered amount? An email address that's clearly wrong?
Sometimes the warning signs are that obvious.
But what about the times when they're not?
The invoice looks like every other invoice you've received from that vendor. The amount isn't unusual. The email sounds like the person you normally work with. The request itself doesn't seem unreasonable.
Nothing immediately tells you to stop and that's exactly what can make fraud so difficult to catch.
It's easy to think about fraud as something you should be able to spot on a document.
Look closely enough at the invoice. Check the vendor. Verify the amount. Make sure everything matches.
Those things matter.
But fraud can show up throughout the AP process, not just on the invoice.
A warning sign could appear in:
Sometimes no single piece looks particularly concerning on its own.
It's when you start connecting them that the story changes.
Think about a vendor your company has worked with for years.
You know the name. You recognize the invoices. Nothing about the relationship feels unusual.
Then an email comes in asking to update the vendor’s banking information.
The request itself doesn’t immediately raise concerns. The sender looks familiar, the message sounds like previous communications, and changing banking information is something legitimate vendors do.
At this point, would anything make you stop?
Later, an invoice arrives from that same vendor.
Nothing about it seems unusual. The invoice looks familiar, the amount is in line with what you expect, and the goods or services were actually purchased. It moves through the approval process just like any other invoice.
Looking at the invoice alone, there may be no reason to stop the payment. But now think back to that earlier request to change the vendor's banking information.
That's where the picture starts to change. The question isn't simply "Does this invoice look fraudulent?"
It's also "What happened before this invoice reached me?"
An email, a vendor change, and an invoice may each look perfectly reasonable on their own. Looking at them together may give you a reason to take a closer look.
That's why context matters.
You don't want your finance team treating every transaction as suspicious. But there are moments in the AP process that deserve additional attention.
Maybe it's:
Change doesn't automatically mean fraud. But knowing that something changed gives you a reason to verify it.
The information on an invoice doesn't match the approved vendor information.
An email address is slightly different.
Payment instructions conflict with what's already on file.
Individually, these differences may not seem significant. Together, they can change the picture and give your team a reason to take a closer look.
That keeps it straightforward and ties nicely into the article’s larger point about connecting what happens across the AP process, rather than treating each document or event in isolation.
3. Something isn't normal
A transaction can be completely legitimate and still be unusual.
Ask:
Understanding what's normal makes it easier to recognize when something isn't.
This may be the hardest one.
When something is obviously wrong, it's easier to stop. The things that look almost right can be much harder to question.
Fraud prevention isn't only about finding a fake invoice.
Think about how many pieces of information can be involved before money actually leaves the company:
Vendor communication → Vendor changes → Invoice → Approval → Payment
At any stage, everything may appear reasonable.
That's why context matters.
Finance teams are processing invoices, emails, vendor changes, approvals, banking details, and payments every day. Expecting someone to manually remember and compare every piece of that history every time they approve a transaction isn't realistic.
An invoice doesn't exist in isolation.
There's a vendor behind it. There's a history of transactions. Emails and changes may have led up to it. Approvals happen before payment, and activity follows after.
The more context you can connect, the better your chance of recognizing when something deserves a second look.
You don't need to assume every invoice is fraudulent.
But it may be worth asking:
Not every red flag means fraud. But knowing what to question and when to take a closer look can help stop a fraudulent payment before it goes out.
That's the question we'll explore in the next Platform Talks with Yooz.
Rather than looking at fraud as one suspicious document, we'll follow the trail through real-world scenarios to see how fraud can unfold across:
We'll reveal the scenarios piece by piece and look at how the context changes along the way.
At what point would you stop?
What would make you question something?
Would you catch it before the payment went out?
August 26 | 2:30 PM ET
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