How to prevent invoice fraud: IBAN check and Invoice2Liemar

Committing invoice fraud (or mailbox fraud) sounds harder than it is. The fraudster intercepts the real invoice when it is sent, modifies the account number to that of a money mule, for example, and sends the modified invoice to the addressee. Chances are that the latter will simply pay the invoice. Consequently, there are more and more victims among companies. Fortunately, you can ensure that you and your company do not become victims here.

IBAN name check

It has already been introduced in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands: the IBAN name check for digital transfers. Here's how it works. While entering a transfer order, the bank checks whether the account number (IBAN) and the name of the beneficiary match. Is this not the case? Then you will receive a notification from the bank. You can then first check what does not match. The system is not yet perfect. Because of the enormous variation in spelling of names (Janssen, Jansen, Jansen BV, etc.) you may receive an incorrect notification.

An important note here is that the IBAN name check does not work for some other types of fraud, such as phishing. So the IBAN name check is a very good tool, but not a conclusive solution that you can trust blindly.

Belgian fight against invoice fraud

Combating payment fraud is high on the agenda of the Belgian banking sector. Various possible solutions are therefore being investigated in order to combat it as effectively as possible. The BAN name check is also being used for this purpose. For the time being, it will concern Belgian account numbers. The European Commission is still looking into European checks. In the meantime, the Belgian sector is already hard at work setting up this system so that it can be rolled out quickly.

The Invoice2Liemar solution

Users of Invoice2Liemar in LiemarX are even less likely to become victims of invoice fraud. Processing your purchase invoices digitally in LiemarX is one way that directly prevents invoice fraud. When processing purchase invoices digitally, LiemarX checks whether the IBAN number on the invoice matches the one in the ERP database. If it does not, you will immediately receive a warning. Want to know more about our automated purchase invoice processing solutions? Contact Niels Oudenaarden at niels@liemar.nl or call 040 248 4041.