Invoice scams
An invoice scam is when a criminal targets people that are paying an invoice, especially for large amounts of money.
They create a fake invoice and often create urgency for the payment so that you pay them quickly, without thinking.
UK Finance data shows that:
- £50.3m was stolen in the UK in the past year through invoice scams
- 70% of invoice scam losses occurred on a non-personal account
Looking for information on how invoice scams affect businesses? Find our business invoice scams article.
On this page:
Step 1: Scammers research companies that use invoices to find recent customers
If you use a company for a service like building work, they usually email you an invoice. Scammers do their research and find out how the company operates and if they use invoices to request payments.
They will try and find recent customers of the company to make sure their fake invoice request is sent at the least suspicious time.
They may get this information by hacking into email accounts to intercept messages between businesses and customers.
Step 2: Scammer sends fake invoice
The fake company will send their invoice to the customer by email or letter with the required amount of money and a payment date. They will mimic the trusted company’s style of contact to make their communication look authentic.
According to UK Finance data, 80% of the cases reported in 2023 came via email.
Step 3: Scammer steals your money
Believing that the email or letter is from the real company, the customer then pays the invoice and the funds go to an account that the scammer has access to.
The customer does not often realise they have been scammed until the genuine company chases for non-payment.
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Check all requests for payments carefully
Whenever you need to make a payment, check the request carefully to make sure it matches up with the money and company you were expecting to pay.
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Check that the communication you have received is from a genuine company
Make sure you check the email address that the request came from and the style of the invoice. Criminals can easily hack into genuine email accounts or will create an email address that looks very similar to the genuine business' email address.
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Only give your bank details to people you trust
Never share your bank details with people you do not know and trust.
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Always call the person or company first to check that the request is genuine using details from their trusted website
Do not use the contact details from the email as the genuine email account may have been hacked and you could end up speaking to the criminal.
Learn more
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Take Five
Take Five offers straightforward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from fraud.
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Common fraud threats
Find out more about common fraud threats and how to avoid them.
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