Lending and collateral fraud
The paper looks right. Did anyone ask the debtor before the cash went out?
A double-pledged invoice, an invoice for goods never shipped, or a real invoice with changed bank details can all pass a document review. The only party who knows the truth is the debtor's own payables team, and the usual check reaches a contact the seller supplied.
Built for Factors, invoice-finance fintechs, asset-based lenders advancing against invoices; Head of Credit, Head of Operations, Head of Risk
The problem in numbers
What the public record shows
Every figure links to the page it came from, with its date.
13.2 million
US dollars of factoring fraud found at the Bank of San Antonio that involved a former employee (insider fraud), described in the International Factoring Association's magazine
magazine.factoring.org, 2020-09-10
4.6 million
US dollars, or more, were advanced by a New Jersey factoring company against invoices for receivables that did not exist, in a case where the seller pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October 2026
funderintel.com, 2026-10-20
45%
of organizations reported vendor imposter fraud in 2024, the scam where someone posing as a supplier changes where payments go, per the 2025 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey
financialprofessionals.org, 2025-04-15
What you get
The deliverables
You get a pilot on a batch of invoices: each one confirmed with the debtor's real payment approver as existing, undisputed and payable to your account, with double-pledge and bank-detail redirect flags.
Each invoice confirmed at the source
Every invoice in the batch confirmed with the debtor's real payment approver, reached through contact details found independently of the seller.
Four facts per invoice
Exists, undisputed, amount and due date, and payable to your account, each recorded with who confirmed it and their role.
Double-pledge and redirect flags
Flags where lien filings or the debtor's records suggest another lender, or where the debtor's payables system holds different bank details.
A pass and fail sheet
Which invoices passed, which failed and why, so you can decide whether to change your process.
How it runs
A pilot on one batch; size agreed on a short call, start to finish
A pilot on one batch; size agreed on a short call
Pick the batch
You choose a batch of invoices, recent or about to be funded, and share the schedule.
Independent confirmation
Debtor contacts are sourced independently of the seller and each invoice is confirmed on the four facts.
Flags and readout
You get the pass and fail sheet with double-pledge and redirect flags, and a call to go through it with credit and operations.
Consent. Your written consent sets the batch, the wording and how debtors are contacted. Debtors are contacted only for invoices you choose, using wording you approve, and only where your agreement with the seller allows verification.
Method
How the answer is produced
The contact never comes from the seller
Debtor phone numbers and emails are found through public switchboards or contacts already confirmed, so an accomplice or lookalike domain cannot answer for the debtor. The payables approver is identified by asking the debtor's main switchboard or accounts payable inbox who approves supplier invoices, and the name and role are recorded.
Ask the full question
Not 'did you receive it' but 'is it approved, undisputed, due on this date, and will you pay it to this account'.
Before the advance, not after
The check is built to run before funding, when a bad invoice can still be stopped.
Why Amir
Designed and led by someone who has built fraud models in production
The patents closest to this problem:
Amir is a named inventor on US 12,124,933 B2 (Artificial intelligence system for anomaly detection in transaction data sets, filed at NICE Actimize; granted).
Amir is a named inventor on US 12,124,933 B2 (Artificial intelligence system for anomaly detection in transaction data sets, filed at NICE Actimize), which covers spotting unusual records at one institution using what other institutions have learned while each keeps its own data. It is background for this problem; the pilot itself relies on human confirmation with debtors.
View on Google PatentsThese patents were filed at the companies named. They show the problems Amir has worked on; they are not Riskernel products.
Is this you
You probably need this if
- Debtor contact details for verification come from the seller's own paperwork.
- Your verification asks whether an invoice was received, not whether it is approved, undisputed and payable to your account.
- You verify invoices above a threshold, and a seller could learn where that threshold is.
- Payments on financed invoices sometimes arrive from the seller instead of the debtor.
- You have not re-run a lien search (a search of public filings that show which lenders hold a claim on the seller's invoices) since onboarding.
Questions
Before you reach out
Does this replace our underwriters?
No. It gives them an independent answer from the one party the seller does not control.
Will you contact our clients' debtors?
Only for invoices you put in the batch, and only in the way you approve, for example as your verification desk.
What do you need from us?
The invoice schedule for the batch, your remittance details, and the rules you use today to choose which invoices to verify.
How big is the pilot?
Batch size and timing are agreed on a short call.
Scope Pre-Funding Invoice Check with Amir
Tell Amir what you run and what worries you. He replies with a short scope outline.