How to check a request to change bank details
Fraudsters often email a small business pretending to be a supplier and ask for payments to go to a new account. Work through the free Payment Check Companion first, before any payment step.
- Do not reply to the email or use the phone number in it.
- Find a supplier contact you have independently obtained and already verified. An old invoice is not trusted by default, because it may have been forged or copied from a fraudulent email.
- Contact them through that route and ask them to confirm the actual new account details.
- Follow your business's approval rules, including a second person's approval.
- Pay only after that independent verification and approval.
- If you choose to send a small first transfer, do it only after steps 1 to 5. Check receipt through the trusted contact. Receipt alone does not prove who owns the account or make later payments safe.
If you cannot complete these checks, stop and do not pay the new account.