--- title: "Payment fraud glossary" description: "Plain-English definitions of payment fraud and verification terms: BEC, vendor impersonation, callback verification, positive pay and more." url: https://realpayee.com/glossary canonical: https://realpayee.com/glossary date_published: 2026-10-05 date_modified: 2026-10-05 author: RealPayee --- # Payment fraud glossary > Plain-English definitions of payment fraud and verification terms: BEC, vendor impersonation, callback verification, positive pay and more. All terms as JSON Lines: https://realpayee.com/feeds/glossary.jsonl ## Account takeover (ATO) Account takeover is when a criminal gains control of a legitimate account - an email mailbox, a vendor portal login or an online banking user - and uses it to act as the real owner. In vendor fraud, a taken-over supplier mailbox lets the attacker request bank changes on genuine email threads. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/account-takeover (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/account-takeover.md) ## ACH (Automated Clearing House) ACH is the US network for batch electronic payments between bank accounts, used for payroll, vendor payments and direct debits. ACH payments are cheaper and slower than wires and some can be returned, but fraudulent ACH credits sent after a fake bank-detail change are still often lost. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/ach (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/ach.md) ## Authorized push payment (APP) fraud Authorized push payment fraud is when a victim is tricked into sending a payment themselves to an account controlled by a fraudster. Because the payer authorized the transfer, banks often treat it as a valid payment, which makes prevention before release essential. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/authorized-push-payment-fraud (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/authorized-push-payment-fraud.md) ## Business email compromise (BEC) Business email compromise is fraud in which criminals use spoofed, lookalike or hijacked business email to trick employees into sending money or sensitive data. The FBI's IC3 recorded roughly $3.0 billion in BEC losses in 2025; vendor impersonation and CEO fraud are its most common forms. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/business-email-compromise (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/business-email-compromise.md) ## Callback verification Callback verification is confirming a payment instruction or bank-detail change by phoning the requester on a number you already had on file - never one supplied in the request. The contact should read the new details back to you, and the call should be documented. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/callback-verification (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/callback-verification.md) ## CEO fraud CEO fraud is a scam in which a criminal impersonates a CEO, CFO or other executive to pressure an employee into making an urgent, confidential payment. It is a type of business email compromise, also called executive impersonation or whaling, and increasingly uses cloned voices or deepfake video. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/ceo-fraud (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/ceo-fraud.md) ## Deepfake A deepfake is AI-generated or AI-altered audio, video or imagery that convincingly imitates a real person. In payment fraud, deepfaked executives on video calls have been used to authorize transfers, as in the 2024 Arup case where about $25.6 million was lost. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/deepfake (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/deepfake.md) ## Dual approval (segregation of duties) Dual approval requires two different authorized people to approve a payment or a vendor-record change, so no single person - or single deceived employee - can move money alone. It is part of segregation of duties: separating who can change payee details, prepare payments and approve them. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/dual-approval (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/dual-approval.md) ## Know your payee (KYP) Know your payee is the practice of confirming who you are paying before you pay them: that the payee is a legitimate entity, that the bank account belongs to it, and that any change to its payment details was genuinely requested by it. It is the payments counterpart of know-your-customer (KYC). Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/know-your-payee (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/know-your-payee.md) ## Liveness check A liveness check confirms that a real, physically present person is in front of the camera - not a photo, recording, mask or deepfake - usually during a live selfie. Combined with an ID document match, it verifies that the right human approved a sensitive action. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/liveness-check (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/liveness-check.md) ## Out-of-band verification Out-of-band verification is confirming a request through a separate channel and contact details the requester did not provide - for example, calling a vendor's known number after an email request. It defeats attackers who control the original channel, such as a compromised mailbox. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/out-of-band-verification (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/out-of-band-verification.md) ## Payee name check (account name matching) A payee name check compares the name on the receiving bank account with the payee name you intend to pay, before the payment is sent. Services such as Early Warning's account verification and Plaid Identity Match provide this in the US; it confirms the account, not that the request was genuine. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/payee-name-check (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/payee-name-check.md) ## Positive Pay Positive Pay is a bank service that matches checks presented for payment - and with ACH Positive Pay, incoming ACH debits - against the items a company issued or authorized, flagging exceptions for review. It stops altered or counterfeit checks and unauthorized debits, but not wires your own staff were tricked into sending. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/positive-pay (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/positive-pay.md) ## Social engineering Social engineering is manipulating people - rather than hacking systems - into breaking normal procedures, typically through authority, urgency, secrecy or familiarity. Most business payment fraud, from fake vendor emails to deepfake executive calls, is social engineering. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/social-engineering (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/social-engineering.md) ## Social engineering fraud insurance coverage Social engineering fraud coverage is insurance - often an endorsement to a commercial crime policy, with its own sub-limit - for losses when an employee is deceived into sending money. Policies may require that payment-instruction changes were verified, for example by callback, so documented verification matters. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/social-engineering-fraud-insurance (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/social-engineering-fraud-insurance.md) ## Vendor impersonation fraud Vendor impersonation fraud is when a criminal poses as a real supplier - usually by compromised or lookalike email - to redirect its payments to a new bank account. In the AFP's 2025 survey, 45% of organizations reported vendor imposter fraud, up 11 points from the prior year. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-impersonation (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-impersonation.md) ## Vendor master file The vendor master file is the record in your ERP or AP system holding each supplier's legal name, tax ID, addresses, contacts and bank details. Changes to it, especially bank details, are the highest-risk events in accounts payable and should be verified and logged. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-master-file (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-master-file.md) ## Vendor verification Vendor verification is confirming that a supplier is legitimate and that the bank account you pay belongs to it - at onboarding and whenever its payment details change. Its most important step is out-of-band confirmation of bank-detail changes with a known contact. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-verification (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-verification.md) ## Voice cloning Voice cloning uses AI to synthesize speech in a specific person's voice from samples of their recordings. Fraudsters use cloned executive voices on calls and voice messages, as in attempts against WPP and Ferrari in 2024, so a familiar voice alone should never authorize a payment. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/voice-cloning (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/voice-cloning.md) ## Wire transfer A wire transfer is a fast, bank-to-bank electronic payment (in the US, typically via Fedwire or, internationally, via SWIFT) that is generally final once settled. Its speed and finality make wires a prime target for payment fraud and hard to recover. Page: https://realpayee.com/glossary/wire-transfer (markdown: https://realpayee.com/glossary/wire-transfer.md) --- Canonical HTML: https://realpayee.com/glossary · Site index: https://realpayee.com/llms.txt · Book a demo: https://realpayee.com/demo