The Corporate Invoice Fake

The service doesn't exist, or was never yours. Fake-invoice operations mail thousands of businesses, betting that a busy accounts inbox will pay anything under about $500 without checking.

The word "renewal" does the heavy lifting. It implies a relationship that was never there, so whoever processes it assumes someone else signed up last year.

Some versions are technically "legal" directory listings nobody ever looks at. Most are nothing at all; the money simply disappears.

• No purchase order, contract, or contact name connects it to your business.
• "Renewal" for a service nobody in the company remembers ordering.
• A convenient amount, usually a few hundred dollars, small enough to slip through.
• Late fees and deadlines to rush approval.
• The sender's domain is generic or slightly off.
• Payment goes to a link or unfamiliar account, not your usual vendor process.

Routine. The invoice imitates the boring paperwork a business pays every week, counting on process to do what persuasion can't.

• Check it against your purchase orders and vendor list before anything else.
• Ask around: did anyone actually order this?
• Don't pay, don't reply, and don't call the number on the invoice.
• Warn whoever handles your accounts payable; these arrive in waves.
• Report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.