Ian Perry presents 'Business Issues Vol 3- Invoice Fraud'

Hello, my name is Ian Perry from Remedy For Business Ltd, and I’d like to welcome you to the third video in our “Business Issues” series.

Today we look at invoice fraud which costs business millions of pounds every year, and fraudsters are targeting businesses with weak controls by submitting duplicate invoices for payment.

Once an invoice has been paid again there is little chance of getting the money back, but it’s not just the cash implications that cause damage to a company - they may well fall foul of an HMRC inspection. So what preventative measures should be put in place?

• Introduce robust controls and procedures and test them regularly to ensure they are still working and suitable;

• Make all finance staff aware of the potential for fraud and how it may present itself to them, particularly duplicate payments;

• If suspicious looking invoicing requests are received, inform all relevant staff;

• Inform the customer and warn them of the potential fraud;

• If you receive a bank details change request from an existing customer, ring them and confirm it is valid”;

• If you get repeated requests that look suspicious, inform the local police.

You may well think that no-one in the finance department is silly enough to pay invoices twice but fraudsters are clever, they prey on busy accounts departments.

Please contact me via the ibd website to discuss any queries you might have – and good luck tackling invoice fraud.