Fraudulent Invoice Scams
(July 17, 2026 — Leonardtown, MD)
Method - Victim will be engaged in a business transaction with a company. I've seen this most frequently with respect to real estate and construction transactions, but it applies across a wide variety of business transactions. The Victim will be engaged in an email conversation with the company and expects the company to send them an invoice for payment as part of that email thread. The Suspects will then hijack the email thread by one of two means: either spoofing the company's email and pretending to be the company representative with whom the Victim had been communicating, or by accessing the company's actual email account to the same end. The Suspect will then send an invoice to the Victim for payment, directing them to send funds, usually by wire transfer, to the Suspect's bank account. The Victim will comply, not realizing the invoice was not from the company. This is not usually discovered for several days, if not weeks, later, when either the Victim or the company will follow up with the other regarding the status of the invoice, which the Victim believes has been paid.
Red Flags - This depends on the method by which the Suspect is able to pretend to be the company. If they are able to actually gain access to the company's email account, the email from the Suspect will look completely authentic. Alternatively, if the Suspect spoofs the company's account, the email address the Suspect uses will often by different from the legitimate company email address by a single character. This is often a lowercase i or l, but can be anything. So if a legitimate email address is "CompanyX@yahoo.com", the email address used to send the fraudluent invoice may be "CompanyxX@yahoo.com". This change is apparent upon close inspection, but is easily overlooked at a glance. Additionally, pay close attention to the name of the recipient on the actual invoice. That name is usually someone who is in no way affiliated with the company. Finally, the word "kindly" is often used by scammers in all forms of electronic communications. So if a phrase along the lines of "Kindly remit payment at your earliest convenience" is seen, that should immediately arouse suspicions.
Prevention - Pay close attention to the exact email address that is used to send any invoice. Always verify the authenticity of any invoice received by any means by contacting the sending party at a known good contact number. If an invoice requests payment in any form of cryptocurrency, refuse. Cryptocurrency is often used by internationally based scammers as a means of circumventing international banking rules.
What to do if you are a victim of this scam - Notify your local law enforcement agency to initiate an investigation. Save all text messages/call logs/emails from the fraudster, as these are important evidence for building a case. Immediately notify your bank, as they can sometimes freeze or reverse a wire transfer.
Complications - Legitimate law enforcement officials will try to contact people by the methods described above, so just because someone contacts you claiming to be law enforcement, it doesn't mean they're being untruthful. The primary red flag to watch out for is the demand for immediate payment, which legitimate law enforcement officials will never do. If you receive communication from a law enforcement official that otherwise seems legitimate, reach out to the agency they say they are with to verify they are employed there.