E38: Accounts Payable Fraud: How Ecommerce Businesses Lose Six Figures to Fake Invoices

Stop accounts payable fraud before it hits your bottom line. Learn how to protect your ecommerce business from risky overseas inventory payments. In this episode of the ecommerce finance podcast, Stephen Brown and Rachel Wright break down the mechanics of accounts payable fraud. We examine real-world scenarios where businesses lose capital to sophisticated scams and discuss the exact internal controls needed to secure your outgoing payments. This discussion is essential for finance teams and ecommerce owners looking to strengthen their payment security. By identifying common red flags in international vendor transactions, you will gain actionable strategies for preventing business fraud and safeguarding your inventory budget against unauthorized outflows. Today’s Key Takeaways: Why Ecommerce Businesses Are the Highest-Value Target for Accounts Payable Fraud The $60,000 Fake Invoice With a Real Company Name and EIN How Business Email Compromise Lets Hackers Spoof Your Vendor and Your CEO Separation of Duties in Accounts Payable When to Add Multiple Approvers to Your Bill Payment Process Vendor Management Permissions Lookalike Domain Tricks: .co vs .com and rn vs m Why International Wire Fraud Is Almost Impossible to Recover From How AI Voice Cloning and Better Grammar Are Erasing Fraud Warning Signs The 30-Second Review That Prevents Most Payment Fraud Chapters: 00:00 Understanding Accounts Payable Fraud 01:52 Real-Life Horror Stories of Fraud 05:21 Psychological Tactics Used by Fraudsters 09:49 Preventative Measures: Separation of Duties 14:13 The Importance of Vendor Management 19:00 Identifying Red Flags in Communication 22:54 The Future of Fraud: AI and Voice Spoofing Guest Info: Rachel Wright, accounts payable and senior accounting specialist at LedgerGurus. Rachel works directly with ecommerce clients on AP processing, vendor management, and payment controls, and has personally caught multiple fraudulent invoices before they were paid. -- LedgerGurus handles accounts payable for ecommerce businesses, including vendor verification and the approval controls covered in this episode. More at ledgergurus.com.