5 ways to protect yourself against supplier fraud

Fake factories, hijacked email threads and 'quality drift' between the sample and the container — and the controls that stop each one.

Supplier fraud rarely looks like fraud at the time. It looks like a helpful salesperson, a competitive price and a slightly urgent deadline. These five controls close the gaps criminals actually use.

1. Payment-detail interception

The most common attack today is not a fake company at all — it is a real order where the email thread has been compromised and a revised invoice arrives with new bank details. Control: before any transfer, confirm bank details by voice with a known contact on a phone number you obtained independently. Treat any mid-order change of account as fraud until proven otherwise.

2. The trading company pretending to be a factory

Control: ask for the business licence, cross-check the registered scope, and require a live video walk-through of production. Ask a technical question only a manufacturer can answer, such as tolerance, mould life or raw-material grade.

3. Quality drift between sample and bulk

The golden sample is perfect; the container is not. Control: retain a sealed reference sample, write measurable specifications into the purchase order, and book a pre-shipment inspection with an AQL sampling plan before the balance payment leaves your account.

4. Short shipment and substitution

Control: require loading photos and a container-seal number photographed at stuffing, and check the packing list against the count recorded during inspection.

5. The 'agent' who is also the seller

If the person sourcing for you also earns the supplier's commission, nobody in the chain is representing you. Control: keep the sourcing agent, the inspector and the supplier as separate parties with separate contracts.