Impostor fraud, also known as business email compromise (BEC), occurs when a criminal impersonates someone you know and trust such as a vendor, executive, or the IRS. The impostor contacts you by phone, email, fax, or postal mail and submits an invoice or requests a payment or a change to vendor payment instructions. This results in your payment going to the fraudster rather than where you intended. Unlike other types of fraud, impostor fraud is difficult to detect because the transactions made on your account are consistent with regular payments and are made by authorized personnel. Always verify sensitive requests using this checklist to help ensure you don’t miss an important step.
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