Payroll Fraud

How does payroll fraud work?

Payroll fraud drains money through the pay run rather than the invoice ledger. Common tactics include adding a ghost employee who never worked a day, inflating hours or overtime, and the fastest one of all: quietly changing an employee’s nominated bank account so their salary lands in an account the fraudster controls. A familiar Australian example is an email that appears to come from a staff member asking payroll to “update my bank details before Thursday’s pay”. If nobody confirms the new account really belongs to that employee, the next salary run pays a stranger.

Why it matters for Australian finance teams

Payroll is often high trust and high frequency, which is exactly what makes it a target. Because pay runs repeat fortnightly or monthly, a single unnoticed change can be paid out several times before anyone reconciles. The impersonation route has grown alongside business email compromise, which the ACCC’s Scamwatch and the Australian Signals Directorate both flag as a costly threat to organisations. For finance and HR teams, the damage is financial, and it also raises hard questions about controls over employee master data.

How ezyshield helps

ezyshield confirms that a person owns the bank account nominated for them before money moves, and re-verifies whenever those details change, so a swapped account is caught rather than silently paid. It verifies people and businesses, not internal timesheet accuracy, so it complements payroll controls rather than replacing them. Every check is recorded in an append-only audit trail. See how it works and bank account ownership verification.