CHECK THE BANK DETAILS!

Recently, the touring exhibition industry in general is becoming a target of ‘Invoice Fraud’. This page explain how you can help stop this happening and make sure you are not scammed.

There are more details on this for the larger banking world here and here. This is a world-wide problem, affecting all businesses, but at the moment (June 2025) particularly touring exhibitions.

A little background on myself. Prior to working in the brick building industry, I spent 20 years working as an IT consultant, specifically in the world of email. My knowledge is obviously quite dated now - but I do know just how difficult this is to trace. Company to company email is NOT a secure messaging medium, and never has been. It’s the equivalent of a postcard, not a sealed letter. Bear that in mind.

What is Invoice Fraud?

Simply put, it’s when a scammer sends you (the customer) an invoice with the wrong bank details on it. You may think it’s come from us, so pay the invoice. However - as the invoice has the wrong details on it - we will never receive the money. There is nothing that we can do to reclaim that money as your supplier.

How does Invoice Fraud happen?

Generally, this type of fraud happens when scammers have access to the email account of either the customer, or supplier. With this access - they can create fake emails. These fake emails usually give the customer fake bank details to pay an invoice. They might also delete emails with the correct bank details, or other emails explaining things. You will most likely NOT be able to spot the fakes from the real emails.

I think I might have been victim to Invoice Fraud

Please, stop reading now and CONTACT your bank. The sooner you do this, the more chance you have of getting your money back.

Why is the Touring Exhibition industry being targetted?

In all honesty, every type of industry is affected by this. However, I think that there are some good reasons why we might be an ‘easy’ target.

  • Fund transferred to book exhibitions etc are usually large amounts. This is attractive

  • By the nature of our work, we are not always at our computers. This gives scammers time to intercept the emails.

  • We’re museum or gallery space experts. We’re not IT experts (probably), so might be seen as an easy touch.

What can I do to prevent Invoice Fraud?

The absolute best thing you can do to prevent this fraud is by checking the bank details of any invoice you receive, if you haven’t already paid that company. DO NOT do this via email.

  • Check bank details by phone to the published phone number of the supplier (ours is on the ‘Contact Us’ page)

  • In countries that support it, make sure the account name on th bank details you have been given matches what the bank thinks it is.

  • Be very suspicious of payments in a strange currency or to a strange name.

Next, please make sure that your account is secure. Recently, some 16 BILLION details have been leaked onto the web. At this point, I would suggest that if you don’t know your account is hacked - it might well be. Some easy steps you can take to do this are;

  • Turn on 2 factor authentication. This can be via SMS code, but using an authenticator app is much better

  • Use Passkeys if you can

  • When you enable these services, make sure to log out ALL devices currently connected to your account. That way you’ll lock out any hackers.

What are we doing to prevent Invoice Fraud

As I mentioned above, there is nothing we can do once this fraud happens. So we’re doing our best to highlight the issue. Right now, we’re taking some specific steps

  • One is this guide, which is publicly available to anyone. PLEASE forward on the link to anyone who you think could benefit from it

  • You can check our correct company details on payment services such as Coupa or Achillies.

  • ALL of our invoices come from the accounting package Xero. If the invoice does not come from Xero, it is a scam. If the invoice appears to come from Xero - it MIGHT still be fake, and very difficult to tell. Next:

  • Our bank details are with Starling Bank in the UK (for GBP and Euro payments) and Community Federal Savings bank (for USD payments). If the invoice is in any other currency, it is a scam. If the bank account is with those banks, it MIGHT still be fake. Next:

  • CONFIRM the bank details you appear to have from us, in a different method than email. On the telephone is best, again using the number on our ‘Contact Us’ page. Please note that we will only speak in English on the telephone, to avoid confusion.

  • If you’re still in doubt - please send a small amount first. Make it a random small amount of cents or pennies. We will then confirm to you what amount we have received into the correct account. Scammers WON’T know this amount.

If you have more information that I can add to update this page, please do let me know via our contact us page. I will endeavor to keep this page updated as much as possible.

Warren.