Stop invoice fraud
Fake supplier invoices with a swapped IBAN cost businesses millions every year. Our automatic invoice check detects manipulated bank details before you pay.
The scheme: supplier invoice fraud
Payment diversion: fraudsters intercept or forge genuine supplier invoices and change just one thing: the IBAN. You pay as usual, but the money ends up in the fraudsters' account.
1. Fake invoice
Visually identical to the real one, with changed bank details.
2. You pay
Nothing looks unusual. The transfer goes out.
3. Money gone
A reversal is usually impossible. You bear the loss.
How we stop it
IBAN against your history
Do the issuer's bank details differ from earlier invoices? Is the check digit wrong, does the IBAN country not match the registered office, or does the same IBAN suddenly appear for a different supplier (a collection account pattern)? You see a red warning before you pay.
VAT ID, bank and sanctions list checked live
We check the issuer's VAT ID live against EU VIES, the receiving bank against the Bundesbank sort code file and the name against the EU financial sanctions list. All three sources are free and public, and we use them automatically in every check.
Detect payment pressure & anomalies
New bank details shortly before a tight payment deadline, an unusually high amount or one just below an approval limit, or a PDF that has visibly been edited afterwards: inconspicuous on their own, but in combination a warning sign that we detect automatically.
Fraud comparison without plain-text IBAN
For the supplier history (the fraud comparison) we do not store any plain-text IBAN, only an encrypted comparison value. GDPR-compliant, hosted in Germany.
And the other direction: make your own invoices tamper-proof
The same scheme also targets your customers, with fake “invoices from you”. With the authenticity seal you give them a countermeasure.
QR code on your invoice
Your outgoing invoice is cryptographically signed and carries a QR code. Your customer scans it and sees at once, before paying: genuine, unaltered and with the correct IBAN.
Public verification with your logo
The verification page is free, needs no account and carries your logo. If you correct or cancel an invoice, you revoke the seal and the page then shows “revoked”.
Based on real cases and official figures
We are not inventing a problem. Sources from business, the police and the EU show how widespread invoice and IBAN fraud is in Germany, and why the bank check alone is not enough.
36% of companies affected
Bitkom (German digital industry association): more than a third of German companies have been hit by fraud involving fake suppliers or invoices, and the trend is rising.
Fraud is a mass offence
German police crime statistics 2024: 743,472 recorded fraud cases in Germany.
BKA (Federal Criminal Police Office) · Crime statistics 2024 ↗
Authorities are actively warning
“More and more manipulated digital invoices in circulation”: an official warning from the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK).
The scam has a name
Payment diversion: fraudsters swap only the IBAN on an invoice that looks genuine, as explained by Commerzbank.
The bank check is not enough
The new mandatory EU check (Verification of Payee, since Oct 2025) checks the account when you make a transfer, not the invoice itself.
Disguised fake invoices, too
Directory listing scams: around €350 million in damage per year from invoice-like offers (estimate by DSW, the German Protection Association for the Economy).
A note on the data: there is no official statistic specifically on invoice IBAN manipulation. The figures come from industry associations, public authorities and EU sources. We link to them openly and do not gloss over anything.
FAQ: invoice fraud & IBAN manipulation
What is payment diversion?
In payment diversion, fraudsters intercept or forge a genuine invoice and swap only the IBAN. The invoice looks unchanged, but the money ends up in the fraudsters' account. It is one of the most common fraud schemes in business payments.
How do I spot a manipulated IBAN on an invoice?
Warning signs are bank details that differ from earlier invoices from the same supplier, an invalid check digit or an IBAN country that does not match the company's registered office. Our service automatically compares every incoming invoice against your supplier history and warns you before you pay.
Is the new bank check (Verification of Payee) not enough?
Verification of Payee, mandatory since October 2025, checks at the time of transfer whether the account name and IBAN match, but only at the moment of payment and not the invoice itself. It does not replace comparing the invoice IBAN against the supplier's history.
Are my bank details stored?
No. We do not store any plain-text IBAN, only an encrypted comparison value and a masked display. The check complies with the GDPR (DSGVO), and hosting is in Germany.
How common is invoice fraud in Germany?
According to Bitkom (the German digital industry association), around one third of German companies have been affected by fraud involving fake suppliers or invoices, and the trend is rising. Authorities and the German chambers of commerce (IHKs) regularly warn about manipulated digital invoices.
How do I protect myself against supplier invoice fraud?
With an automatic invoice check before every payment: every incoming supplier invoice is formally validated (KoSIT/EN 16931), the bank details are compared against your supplier history and the Bundesbank sort code file, the issuer's VAT ID is verified live against EU VIES and the name is checked against the EU sanctions list. If the IBAN differs, the check digit is invalid, the name appears on the sanctions list or we detect a typical fraud pattern such as new bank details shortly before a tight payment deadline, you see a red warning before any money leaves your account. With the mailbox connection, this invoice check runs fully automatically for every incoming invoice.
What is a spoofed sender address (CEO fraud, business email compromise)?
In CEO fraud or business email compromise, fraudsters spoof the sender address of an email or register a confusingly similar domain (for example with swapped letters) to make an invoice look credible. When an incoming invoice arrives via our mailbox connection, we compare the sender domain against the supplier's previous history, detect lookalike domains and check whether the reply-to address and the mail server's SPF/DKIM result match the expected origin.
Check every incoming invoice
Compliant and fraud-proof, the only service with an IBAN check. Start for free.
Protect yourself now