Remember when Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank failed in March of 2023?  Those were the first bank failures since October of 2020 and news was everywhere.  Well, there have been 4 more bank failures since then with the latest one in April of 2024.  What should the vendor team do?  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines...

I experimented with generative artificial intelligence or generative AI – voice cloning for an upcoming webinar on avoiding payment fraud from deepfakes.  Wasn’t expecting this….  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live and...

You may worry about vendor banking information and preventing fraudulent electronic payments – however, both internal and external fraudsters are after your checks.  If you want to make sure you are protecting remittance addresses for your checks…. Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new...

Validating Vendor Banking information is critical to 1) make sure payments are successful; and 2) to validate you are paying your actual vendor and not a cybercriminal.  There have been some changes in resources for 2024, so if you want to hear the updated resources……   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor...

Most internal fraudsters display at least one of eight (8) red flags that fraud is occurring.  Do you know what to look for?   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live and on-demand training for the Vendor team.    Links mentioned...

Now that the new IRS Form W-9 is published, let’s look at a frequently asked question I get – what should you do if the vendor’s legal name and tax id combination is not valid with the IRS?  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live...

In 2023, Business Email Compromise, or BEC, is still a money maker for fraudsters according to the latest report by the FBI.  Here is a quick look at the stats compared to 2022 and before the pandemic.   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours...

Finally – the IRS has published the updated version of the Form W-9.  Now what?   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live and on-demand training for the Vendor team.    Links mentioned in the podcast + other helpful resources: ...

Do you have in your vendor bank account add or update process, that if the bank account ownership validation is successful – you stop right there?  That’s no longer appropriate.  Why?....  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live...

Remember that $25.6M successful payment to fraudsters?  Of course you do, seems like every media outlet and all the companies you subscribe to (like mine) reported on it too.  So how can you combat?   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of...

Get 20 tips to avoid the latest fraud trends of 2023 in 2024.  Discover the latest 6 fraud trends of last year and how you can stay updated, avoid and detect fraud in the vendor setup and maintenance process.    Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for...

Watchlists, sanction lists, exclusion lists, etc – here are three reasons why you may not be compliant with regulatory requirements.  Plus, how you can get recommendations at no extra charge or how you can “diy” and build your own watchlist compliance matrix.   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check...

How hard is it for you to get approved $500 of training or software to help you do your job better?  See what fraudsters get for $500 to defraud you and your company.    Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly live and on-demand training...

To mitigate fraud, many companies are taking steps to avoid potential fraud risks – including verifying banking details via phone.  If that happens when you try to confirm your vendor’s bank change, what can you do?  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for...

It was two years into an AP Sr Manager position when I realized that another group had access to one of my vendor record screens in the vendor master file.  Just one.  What?  Why? Then we fixed it.  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of...

Now that it’s 1099 season many of you are reminded of how you just didn’t get around to making sure the information you collect from your vendors is sufficient and valid for tax reporting, nor how you make sure it stays that way.  If you want 20 tips on how to handle your Federal and State Reportable Vendors year-round…..  Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent...

If your vendor had to notify you of a fraudulent payment, you don’t have enough controls.  Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check the Vendor Process Training Center for 115+ hours of weekly live and on-demand training for the Vendor team.   Links mentioned in the podcast + other helpful...

It shouldn’t happen but it always does –  vendors don’t have a valid address on file. You don’t want check payments or 1099s to come back, so here are some free reliable sources to find an address that is tied to your vendor.  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training...

#Scamolidays are still going on, but we’re in the final week of the 4 week focus on specific scams and all content is up and published.  Want to know what content is ready for you to stay safe through New Years and into 2024?   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training...

When you and your team are setting up vendors for ACH or Wire payments – do you know what those bank branch numbers are?  Do you know how to validate?  And if you know you should validate - do you have links to those resources? Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training...

From a human behavior perspective, fraudsters depend on our “mental shortcuts” to get us to take action on those phishing emails. Here are three examples and how the other “ishings” come into play – we’re talking about email right?  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process...

There is a school that converted all of their ACH payment vendors to check payments after an ACH fraud occurred.  Most likely because they felt that positive pay would protect them against fraud.  Maybe, but adding an additional step can go further to protect against check payment fraud.   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory...

Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping bring good deals for your co-worker Secret Santa gifts and many of those deals have to be shipped.  Cue fraudsters.  Discover 2 tips to avoid shipping fraud straight from the delivery giant themselves – the US Postal Service! Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data....

A particular type of check fraud and Ponzi schemes have something in common.  We’re talking internal fraud with one example of how employees can perpetrate check fraud and why it can get out of hand….just like a Ponzi scheme.   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training...