Changes in payment instructions are a frequent internet and email scam in this day and age. Those scams mean that your company could end up paying a fraudulent account rather than your real suppliers. Often, the money paid into a fraudulent account is moved on by the fraudsters within hours, and is not recoverable by your company.
Note that our company has no immediate plans to make any change in our banking relationship from that shown above and you should be suspicious of any request to change banks.
We ask that our customers exercise caution when they receive any email or letter that suggests that our payment bank has been changed. Often these email requests to change bank account information are preceded by an email asking you to verify amounts due to your supplier so that the fraudsters know the size of the payment they will insist on you sending quickly. You should always follow good practices to avoid being a victim of payment fraud: a) review the email address carefully – fraudsters will use one-letter differences or hard-to-catch typos that are close to but not from legitimate email domains; b) always call a person at our company directly, using contact phone numbers or emails that are not part of the payment change email you have received.
Additional information about email bank account fraud is available from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (click here to view), and the U.S. Secret Service (click here to view). Your own bank and local law enforcement offices likely have suggestions on how to avoid fraudulent payment scams.