Don’t Pay That Invoice Until You Check These Five Things

An expensive business problem doesn’t always start with a crashed server or a downed phone line. Sometimes it starts with an email that looks like a normal invoice.

The scam is simple. Someone pretends to be a vendor you already work with, or even your own bookkeeper, and asks you to pay a bill. Sometimes they change a routing number or a payment address “because we switched banks.” Sometimes they follow up on a real conversation from last week. The email looks right. The logo looks right. But the payment goes to someone else, and recovering it can be difficult.

Before paying an invoice that arrives by email, check these five things.

1. Compare it to the last real invoice. Pull up an invoice you know you paid correctly and compare the company name, remit-to address, account number, and bank details. An unexpected change deserves a closer look.
2. Verify changed payment instructions separately. If a vendor says it switched banks, call on a number you already have—not the one in the new email. Confirm the change with someone you know before sending money.
3. Look at the actual email address. The display name might say “Acme Supplies” while the sender uses an unrelated address or a lookalike domain with one letter changed. Expand the sender details to see the address. Even a correct address isn’t proof: a real mailbox can be compromised.
4. Watch for urgency. “Pay today or your account will be suspended” should prompt verification, not a rushed payment. Check the claimed deadline through your usual vendor contact or account portal.
5. Require a second check for payment changes. Have another person independently verify changes to bank or mailing details. Make that a normal part of the process, even when the request appears to come from the boss.

This isn’t about being paranoid. It’s about verifying where your money is going before it leaves your account.

A few other habits help. Use unique passwords and turn on multi-factor authentication for email and accounting software. Those measures reduce the chance that a stolen password lets someone send convincing invoices from your own account.

If you think you already paid a fake invoice, call your bank immediately and ask about stopping or recalling the payment. Speed matters. Preserve the messages and payment records, too.

At COiN Services, we help small businesses with email, security, backups, and the day-to-day IT that keeps the office running.

Has your office received an invoice that didn’t quite look right? Contact us at coinservices.net to discuss your email setup and practical ways to protect it.