Invoice fraud detection: duplicate and fake invoices
For accounts payable clerks, bookkeepers, office managers and finance supervisors who process supplier invoices or approve payment runs. Complete 'Basic invoice checks: missing fields and duplicates' first. This course complements the courses on three-way matching and on verifying bank-detail changes by focusing on fraud: recognising fake-invoice scams, running data tests that catch duplicate and near-duplicate invoices and duplicate suppliers, verifying a suspicious invoice without using the contact details on it, escalating and reporting, and using what you find to improve controls. It draws on US guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the GAO's fraud risk framework, and UK reporting routes from the National Cyber Security Centre. This course is not professional advice or audit or investigation training, and isn't legal advice; follow your company's fraud response plan and involve your manager, auditors or the police as it sets out.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 92 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Identify fake-invoice scams such as invoices for unordered goods, bogus directory listings and impersonated renewal notices
- Detect duplicate and near-duplicate invoices and duplicate suppliers with data tests across a payment history
- Verify a suspicious invoice with the internal requester and the supplier using contact details you already hold
- Escalate a suspected fraudulent invoice, preserve the evidence and report it through the right channels
- Use invoice fraud findings to improve controls, tests and training
Course outline
- 1.Identifying fake-invoice scamsLesson · 18 min
- 2.Detecting duplicate and near-duplicate invoices and duplicate suppliers with data testsLesson · 20 min
- 3.Verifying a suspicious invoice using contact details you already holdLesson · 17 min
- 4.Escalating a suspected fraudulent invoice, preserving evidence and reporting itLesson · 19 min
- 5.Using invoice fraud findings to improve controls, tests and trainingLesson · 12 min
- 6.Invoice fraud detection: duplicate and fake invoices: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Invoice fraud detection: duplicate and fake invoices: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- US Federal Trade Commission: Scams and Your Small Business: A Guide for Business
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): Business Email Compromise: The $55 Billion Scam (PSA I-091124-PSA, 2024)
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): Business Email Compromise
- GAO-15-593SP: A Framework for Managing Fraud Risks in Federal Programs (July 2015)
- UK National Cyber Security Centre: Phishing scams, Report a scam email
See it with your own jobs and topics
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