After a slight decrease in last year’s report, payment fraud is back in a big way. According to the 2024 Payments Fraud and Control Report, the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) found that 80% of organizations reported being a payment fraud target, the highest total since 2019.*

Checks remain the main target for fraudsters, with 65% of organizations reporting an attempted fraud attempt using the payment method Of the organizations reporting, 33% experienced fraud attempts via ACH debits, which saw the most significant year-over-year increase, surpassing wire transfers and corporate credit cards.

Is your business following this best practice?
Use ACH blocks to stop unauthorized ACH transactions and ACH filters to allow only designated ACH transactions to post to the account.

Despite a decrease from 2022, Business Email Compromise (BEC) continued to play a critical role in fraudulent activity, affecting 63% of surveyed organizations. Spoofing, domain lookalikes, and legitimate emails taken over by fraudsters are the leading types of BEC.

Is your business following this best practice? 91% of successful data breaches start with “Spear Phishing,” a more targeted approach to phishing**. Training individuals to mitigate these attacks is critical.

BEC: What to look out for
  • A sense of urgency, a call for help, or a need for confidentiality
  • New contacts at a supplier or vendor representing the company
  • Changes to a payment account, typically without a request for a phone contact
  • Sudden changes in communication or shift in business practice
Your business must be proactive when it comes to its security. This year’s report shows that cybercrime is pervasive among organizations and becoming even more common. Consult with your IT team, vendors, and employees to develop an action plan so you can initiate your business’ security measures quickly when an incident occurs.

*Source: https://www.afponline.org/training-resources/resources/survey-research-economic-data/Details/payments-fraud
**Source: https://www.knowbe4.com/spear-phishing