Glossary / Fraud & scams
Payment Redirection Fraud
Payment redirection fraud is a scam where criminals trick a business into sending money to a bank account they control, usually by posing as a supplier and changing the payment details on an invoice.
How does payment redirection fraud work?
Criminals target the moment a payment is about to be made. They intercept or imitate a legitimate supplier, then send a plausible request to update the bank account on file. The invoice looks normal, the logo is right, and the email address is almost identical to the real one. When accounts payable pays the next invoice, the money lands in the fraudster’s account instead. A common Australian example: a construction firm receives an email that appears to come from a long-standing subcontractor, saying “we have changed banks, please update our details.” The next progress payment, often tens of thousands of dollars, is gone before anyone notices.
Why it matters for Australian finance teams
Payment redirection is one of the costliest scams facing local businesses. The ACCC’s Scamwatch and the National Anti-Scam Centre consistently rank payment redirection and business email compromise among the highest-loss categories, with losses running into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. For an accounts payable team, a single diverted supplier payment can wipe out a month of margin, and recovery after the funds leave the account is rare.
How ezyshield helps
ezyshield confirms the person, the business via ABN and ASIC records, and bank account ownership before money moves, so a payment only reaches an account that genuinely belongs to your supplier. If the bank details later change, ezyshield triggers re-verification rather than trusting the request on face value. Every check is written to an append-only audit trail that is logged and never edited or deleted, giving you evidence you verified before you paid. See how it works and bank account ownership verification.
Also known as: payment diversion fraud, payment redirection scam
Last updated: 7 July 2026
Related terms
- Bank Detail Change Fraud Bank detail change fraud is a scam where a criminal poses as a supplier or employee to request a change of bank account details, so future payments are diverted to the fraudster.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC) Business email compromise (BEC) is a scam in which an attacker hacks or impersonates a company email account to trick staff into transferring money or changing payment details.
- Confirmation of Payee (CoP) Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a check that matches the account name a payer enters against the name registered on the destination bank account, warning them before payment if the details do not match.
- Bank Account Ownership Verification Bank account ownership verification confirms that a person or business actually owns the bank account they have nominated, before you pay it, so funds are not sent to an account controlled by a fraudster.
See also: Payment redirection fraud , Payment fraud prevention in Australia , Bank account ownership verification
Stop payment fraud before money moves
Verify the person, business, and bank account before any payment leaves your account.