Invoice Fraud Prevention
Bank detail changes, duplicate invoices, and payment anomalies caught before money leaves.
Bank detail validation
Every supplier bank account on every invoice is verified against your payment history before it reaches approval.
Duplicate detection
Duplicate invoices caught at intake - before they enter the approval queue, not after payment.
Anomaly alerts
Unusual patterns flagged automatically - invoices just below thresholds, dormant vendors reactivated, sudden volume spikes.
How it works
Bank details verified
Supplier bank account numbers on incoming invoices are compared against historical payment records. Any change is flagged before approval.
Duplicates caught at intake
Each invoice is checked against your full history by supplier, amount, date, and invoice number. Matches are held for review, not passed through.
Anomalies surfaced
Unusual billing patterns, ABN mismatches, and approval bypass attempts are flagged with context so your team can investigate before payment.
Clean invoices proceed
Only validated invoices move to the approval workflow. Flagged invoices are held until resolved.
What Pulsify catches
Where AP fraud actually enters
Payment redirection fraud cost Australian businesses AU$152.6 million in 2024, according to the ACCC's National Anti-Scam Centre. That figure covers detected, reported losses - the actual number is higher, because fraud discovered months after the fact is often handled quietly. What the data makes clear is that these losses aren't concentrated in enterprises with complex supplier networks. They concentrate in businesses with established supplier relationships, regular invoice volumes, and manual verification processes - which describes most 15-to-50-person Australian businesses precisely.
AP fraud enters through three specific windows: when a new supplier is onboarded without verification; when an existing supplier's bank details are changed on an incoming invoice; and when a single person can approve and execute a payment without a second checkpoint. These three windows tend to coexist in the same business at the same time, because none of them look like obvious failures from the inside - they look like lean, efficient processes.
Why bank detail changes are the highest-value vector
An attacker doesn't need to create a fake supplier from scratch. They need to intercept a real invoice from a supplier the business already trusts, change the bank account number, and submit it. The business processes it as a routine invoice from a known supplier. The payment goes to the wrong account. The real supplier, unpaid, eventually queries it - sometimes weeks later, sometimes after multiple payment cycles.
The fraud works because bank detail changes are sometimes legitimate. Suppliers do change banks. Detecting the fraudulent ones requires comparing the account number on every incoming invoice against the account stored for that supplier - automatically, on every invoice, not just when someone thinks to check. A manual check is a check that gets skipped under volume. An automated comparison is a check that runs on every invoice regardless.
When the comparison catches a discrepancy, the invoice is held immediately - before it reaches the approval queue - with a specific flag explaining what changed. The resolution path is a callback to the supplier using a contact number from prior correspondence, not from the invoice that triggered the alert. That distinction is critical: the fraudster controls the email and may control the number on the invoice. They don't control your existing relationship with the supplier's finance team.
What automated controls catch that manual review misses
Manual review catches fraud when the reviewer happens to notice something unusual. Automated controls catch it on every invoice, regardless of who's reviewing and what else is on their plate.
Duplicate detection is the clearest example. At 80 invoices per month from 25 suppliers, remembering whether invoice #INV-2847 from a given supplier was already processed last month requires either excellent recall or checking the supplier's history before approving. Under deadline pressure, the check gets skipped. An automated duplicate check - cross-referencing by invoice number, amount, and date - runs in milliseconds and doesn't get tired near month-end.
ABN verification is the same pattern. Checking whether a supplier's ABN is active and matches their registered entity name is a 10-second lookup against the ATO's ABR. It should run on every invoice from every supplier. In practice, it runs when someone remembers to do it. An automated check runs without anyone needing to remember.
Frequently asked questions
Pulsify compares the bank account number and BSB on each incoming invoice against your historical payment records for that supplier. Any change triggers a flag before the invoice enters the approval queue - it does not proceed until reviewed.
Yes. Payment redirection fraud works by substituting bank details on a legitimate-looking invoice. An approver reviewing the invoice manually will not notice the change. Pulsify compares bank details against history automatically on every invoice.
The invoice is held and flagged with the matching invoice reference so your team can confirm whether it is a legitimate resubmission or an error. It does not proceed to approval until resolved.
Yes. Supplier ABNs are verified against the Australian Business Register on each invoice. Cancelled, deregistered, or mismatched ABNs are flagged before approval.
Related articles
SMB Accounting in Australia: Why 20-Person Businesses Have the Highest Per-Invoice Fraud Exposure
Australian SMBs with 10 to 50 staff carry more per-invoice fraud risk than enterprises or sole traders. They're large enough for significant invoice volumes but too small for a dedicated AP function with proper controls.
Financial Control & GovernanceAccounts Payable in Australia: The Three Moments When Your AP Process Is Most Vulnerable to Fraud
Three specific windows in the AP cycle carry most of the fraud risk for Australian businesses: supplier onboarding, changed bank details on an incoming invoice, and single-person payment authorisation.
Financial Control & GovernanceDelegation of Authority for Australian SMBs: How to Set Spending Limits That Actually Get Enforced
A practical guide for 10-to-50-person Australian businesses on designing a delegation of authority policy from scratch - defining roles, thresholds, and category triggers - and making it enforceable through software rather than staff memory.