Vendor fraudsters scammed Fremont business out of $180K: PD

(KRON) – A Fremont business was scammed out of six figures, according to the Fremont Police Department. 

On May 28, Fremont police officers began working on a fraud investigation regarding a manufacturing business on Fremont Boulevard. The business was emailed by a vendor scammer who asked the business to change the bank account information on file for the vendor. The fraudsters then stole the funds the business sent.

Police said the business took a loss of approximately $180,000.

According to CIBC Bank, here are the warning signs of vendor fraud:

• The vendor uses a P.O. box mailing address
• Payment requests have no supported documentation
• The vendor claims that a payment was missed, and they need it immediately
• The email contains misspellings within the body of the request or in the email address
• You’ve received duplicate invoices or payment requests on the same date or payment cycle
• You’ve received an invoice or payment request that’s outside of the normal billing cycle
• Invoices are in whole dollar amounts, have no taxes, or include vague or unnecessary services
• There are drastic changes in prices, services or products provided by a vendor than what’s been agreed

Trustpair, which is a fraud prevention platform, provided businesses with tips to avoid this type of scam. According to the platform, there are three main identifiers of vendor fraud: checking invoice details against the real supplier bank details, tracking changes to invoices and flagging spoof emails. 

In paying a supplier, Trustpair suggests receiving validation of the following:

• The supplier credentials: social security number of persons with significant control, legal data, localization, etc
• Supplier banking information: bank account details, bank address, etc
• The correlation between supplier identity and supplier banking information