In today’s world, immediacy has become the norm as individuals and businesses alike expect to be served quickly. With social media, instant, real time responses are common and with that, phishing, vishing, and account fraud have skyrocketed. In the financial and accounting industries, wire transfers have become a favorite target for bad actors looking to pick your pocket.

In this article, we’ll give some brief tips to protect you from wire transfer fraud. 

Wire Transfer Security Tips

Wire Transfer Requests:

• Remember, wire transfers are just like sending cash! 
• If you receive an email requesting a “wire transfer,” expected or not, the best practice is to confirm the request through a trusted method.
  • Call the recipient for confirmation, but don’t reply to the email as their email might have been compromised.
  • Check the email address for a misspelled, but similar address. Misspelled emails are a common way to mimic a legitimate address and to gain acceptance and approval. 
• Outlook settings can easily be changed. Confirm that no rules have been set to send emails to unknown locations or users.
• Scammers will personalize their email and use a sense of urgency to speed up your response.

Slow down! Scammers create urgency and want you to act quickly. 

• As stated above, “Verify Authenticity” using another method. 
• Call the recipient using a published number other than what is found in the email. 
• Implement a call return process. Whenever an ACH or wire transfer is initiated or changed, the two parties MUST talk via a phone call, never over email.

Stay informed about common scams and tactics.

• Talk to your IT staff about technological changes, risks, and vulnerabilities. 
• Use encryption with email to avoid unauthorized access to accounts. 
• Use two-factor authentication to limit access to authorized personnel. 
• Report fraud using the FTC’s website: reportfraud.ftc.gov. 

Just remember to think before you click. We hope these tips will help you stay safe and secure with your financial dealings.

Written by Linda Strong, Senior Associate – Business Accounting & Mark Finstrom, Manager – IT