Duplicate Payment Fraud

What does duplicate payment fraud look like?

A duplicate payment happens when one invoice is paid twice. Sometimes it is an honest slip: the same PDF arrives by email and through the accounting system, and both get keyed in. Other times it is deliberate. An insider or a supplier resubmits an invoice with a slightly altered number or a new bank account, knowing the second payment will land somewhere they control. Picture an Australian accounts payable team processing hundreds of invoices at month end. A supplier emails a “friendly reminder” for an invoice already paid, but with fresh bank details. The team pays again, and the money goes to a fraudster.

Why it matters for Australian finance teams

Duplicate payments quietly drain working capital, and the second payment is often the hardest to claw back once it has left the account. High invoice volumes, split approvals, and manual data entry all raise the odds. For finance leaders, the real cost is not just the lost cash but the hours spent on reconciliation and recovery, plus the audit questions that follow.

How ezyshield helps

ezyshield does not deduplicate invoices or reconcile your ledger, so it is not a substitute for strong three-way matching controls. What it does do is confirm the person or business owns the bank account before money moves, and re-verify whenever those details change. So if a “second” invoice carries a new account, that change triggers a fresh check instead of a silent payout. Every verification is logged in an append-only audit trail. See how it works and our guidance on accounts payable fraud prevention.