Verify Before You Pay

A practical anti-fraud protocol for AP, operations, and owner-led teams

Most payment fraud succeeds when urgency bypasses verification. Never approve bank changes, payout redirects, or “urgent exceptions” without out-of-band verification.

The 4-Step Verification Protocol

1. Pause: Flag urgency, secrecy, or last-minute change requests as high risk.
2. Verify out-of-band: Call a known contact using a trusted number already on file (not from the email request).
3. Require dual approval: Two-person approval for any bank-detail or payment-destination change.
4. Log evidence: Record who verified, channel used, timestamp, and approval decision.

High-Risk Triggers (Always Verify)

What to Do If You Already Sent Payment

1. Contact your bank/payment provider immediately and request fraud recall/hold.
2. Preserve evidence (email headers, message IDs, invoices, callback logs).
3. Freeze related approval workflows until root cause is confirmed.
4. Reset affected account sessions/passwords and review MFA integrity.

Need Help Implementing This?

Sudo Truth can help implement this as a lightweight SOP + approval workflow pack for your team.