---
title: "What is Vendor impersonation fraud? Definition"
description: "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..."
url: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-impersonation
canonical: https://realpayee.com/glossary/vendor-impersonation
date_published: 2026-10-05
date_modified: 2026-10-05
author: RealPayee
---

# 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.

_Published 2026-10-05 · Updated 2026-10-05 · By RealPayee_

## Related terms

- [Business email compromise (BEC)](https://realpayee.com/glossary/business-email-compromise): Business email compromise is fraud in which criminals use spoofed, lookalike or hijacked business email to trick employees into sending money or sensitive data.
- [Account takeover (ATO)](https://realpayee.com/glossary/account-takeover): 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.
- [Vendor verification](https://realpayee.com/glossary/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.

## Why it matters for finance teams

Most payment fraud reaches AP as a request that looks legitimate. Understanding vendor impersonation fraud helps your team spot it and apply the right control: verify bank-detail changes and large payment requests with the real person, out-of-band, before money moves. Our free [bank-change policy template](https://realpayee.com/templates/vendor-bank-change-policy) puts that into a written rule.

Full glossary: https://realpayee.com/glossary · All terms as JSON Lines: https://realpayee.com/feeds/glossary.jsonl

## Related

- [Vendor fraud: types, examples and how to prevent it](https://realpayee.com/vendor-fraud) - What vendor fraud is, the most common schemes (vendor impersonation, fake bank changes, fake invoices) and the controls that stop them. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/vendor-fraud.md)
- [Vendor verification: how to verify vendor bank details before you pay](https://realpayee.com/vendor-verification) - A practical guide to vendor verification for finance teams: how to confirm vendor bank-detail changes, run callbacks, and prevent vendor impersonation fraud. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/vendor-verification.md)
- [What is a vendor bank change request scam?](https://realpayee.com/answers/what-is-a-vendor-bank-change-request-scam) - How the vendor bank change request scam works, why it succeeds, warning signs and the controls that stop it. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/answers/what-is-a-vendor-bank-change-request-scam.md)
- [Payment fraud statistics 2026](https://realpayee.com/payment-fraud-statistics) - Verified payment fraud statistics for 2026: FBI IC3 business email compromise losses ($3.0B in 2025), AFP survey data on payments fraud, BEC and vendor imposter fraud. Free CSV, free to cite. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/payment-fraud-statistics.md)

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