Someone used AI to fake an invoice with a real name and logo on it. How do I stop my office from paying one?

Question

Alberta Professional AI School · Accepted Answer

Never pay a new or changed payee on the strength of the document alone. Confirm by calling a number you already had on file — not one printed on the invoice — and require a second person to approve any change to banking details. A convincing invoice costs a scammer nothing now; a phone call costs them everything.

AI did not invent invoice fraud. It removed the tells. The spelling is perfect, the logo is right, the name is a real person at a real office, and the tone matches the last ten invoices you paid. Checking whether a document "looks real" no longer works.

So stop checking the document and start checking the channel. The rule that actually stops this is simple: any new payee, and any change to an existing payee’s banking details, gets confirmed by phone using a number you already had — from your own records, a past contract, the organisation’s main line. Never the number, email or link on the invoice in front of you.

Add a second set of eyes for banking changes. In a two- or three-person office that means the owner signs off on any change to where money goes, every time, no exceptions for urgency. Urgency is the scammer’s main tool.

Write both rules on one page and tape it where the bills get paid. The people most likely to be fooled are the careful, busy ones trying to get things done quickly.

Someone used AI to fake an invoice with a real name and logo on it. How do I stop my office from paying one?

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