Will my bank refund a payment sent to a fraudster?

Often not, because you sent the payment yourself. Call your bank right away and ask for a recall, and in the US report it at ic3.gov. Acting within hours gives the best chance of freezing the money.

Is a callback enough to verify a bank change?

Only if you call a number you already had. Fraudsters put their own number in the email, and AI can now clone a voice, so a callback alone is weaker than it used to be.

How to stop vendor bank-change fraud

By Muzamil Awan · Updated October 16, 2026

Vendor bank-change fraud is when a criminal pretends to be a supplier and asks you to pay a new bank account. To stop it, never accept bank changes by email alone, confirm every change using contact details you already had, and make the approver confirm the first payment to any new account.

How the scam works

A criminal gets into a supplier's email, or registers a lookalike domain.
They send a real-looking invoice with new bank details.
Accounts payable updates the vendor record and pays.
The real supplier asks about the unpaid invoice weeks later. The money is gone.

Warning signs

Bank details change right before a large payment
The sender's domain is one letter off
Pressure to pay today, or to keep it quiet
A new account at a different bank or in a different country

A 5-step process that works

Hold payments to any vendor whose bank details changed recently until the change is verified.
Call the supplier on a number from your own records, never one from the email.
Have a second person approve the change.
Have the owner or CFO confirm the first payment to the new account.
Keep a record of who approved what, for your auditor and insurer.

Where Paysealed fits

Paysealed's Gmail and Outlook add-ons flag risky requests, like an email asking you to pay a new bank account or an urgent payment to a new payee, and Paysealed holds them until the real approver confirms on their own registered phone with Face ID or a fingerprint. An email, a call or a cloned voice can't produce that confirmation.

Questions

Will my bank refund a payment sent to a fraudster?: Often not, because you sent the payment yourself. Call your bank right away and ask for a recall, and in the US report it at ic3.gov. Acting within hours gives the best chance of freezing the money.
Is a callback enough to verify a bank change?: Only if you call a number you already had. Fraudsters put their own number in the email, and AI can now clone a voice, so a callback alone is weaker than it used to be.

Sources

FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report

Try Paysealed free

Free pilot for founding customers.