Bank of Ireland is advising businesses to be on increased alert against fraudsters as many companies reopen their workplaces and employees adapt to new hybrid work practices.
The bank said it was seeing a marked increase in reported cases of "invoice redirection" in the weeks since Government work from home advice was lifted.
It said that fraudsters have used this time of change to capitalise on vulnerability.
Invoice redirection fraud is where fraudsters pretend to be a supplier or service provider in order to trick employees into changing bank account payee details.
A common tactic is to tell the business that their bank account details have changed and for all payments to be sent to a new account, controlled by the fraudster.
Bank of Ireland says that fraudsters may write to a company's finance or payments department either on forged headed paper or by email, pretending to be a supplier. Typically, they will say that their account details have changed.
The bank said that the payee account may be located either in Ireland or overseas and the fraudster may ask an employee to send a pending payment to the new account or to ensure that all future payments are sent to the new account.
Edel McDermott, Head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland, said fraudsters thrive in periods of change or uncertainty for business, where attention may be focused on other priorities.
"While the winding down of pandemic restrictions and the return to workplaces is positive news, after two years of remote working, this period will bring considerable change to many companies. Companies and their suppliers may be working in different ways, with team changes or the introduction of new processes and procedures," Edel McDermott said.
"Business email fraud at any time has the potential to have a devastating impact on business. Training staff on the warning signs and verbally checking requests with a known contact will help safeguard business against avoidable losses," she added.
