Eftsure launches payment verification service as international scam risks grow

Artificial intelligence is making payment scams cheaper and easier to carry out en masse, placing Australian businesses at greater risk, payment fraud prevention firm Eftsure has warned.

"We're seeing a perfect storm where AI is making cybercrime more accessible to criminals, while cost pressures are forcing legitimate businesses to operate with smaller, stretched IT and accounts teams," chief executive Jon Soldan said.

"This creates dangerous vulnerabilities, particularly when Australian companies are making payments to foreign bank accounts. Language barriers and different time zones often make traditional controls costly, time-consuming, and more difficult to complete.

"All of those factors make international payments even riskier.”

In particular, AI has helped cyber criminals to launch sophisticated business email compromise (BEC) and fake invoice scams at scale, placing accounts payable teams at the forefront of cyber risks, Eftsure said.

The firm warned that the low-risk, high-reward nature of international payment fraud had made it a lucrative business for criminal groups. Data from the Australian Signals Directorate revealed that Australian firms lost $84 million to BEC scams in the 12 months to 2024, with the average affected business losing $55,0000.

Fraud risks were elevated for international payments because verification of overseas suppliers was typically more complex, allowing criminals to exploit vulnerabilities.

The firm also noted that the issue was likely more widespread than government figures suggested, finding in its own surveys that one third of finance professionals were unsure where to report fraud.

“Government-reported scam losses are large, but our own data indicates that the problem is likely even bigger and costlier,” Soldan said.

“A significant portion of vendor verifications exhibit potential signs of fraud, and we know that payment fraud often goes unreported or even undetected if companies don’t have solutions in place.”

In response to evolving international payment fraud threats, Eftsure has launched an international payment verification service to help curb fraud risk for organisations.

The service embeds multi-factor verification throughout its payment processes, and provides staff with real-time payment information.

"This launch cements Eftsure's position as the global leader in business-to-business payment protection, while specifically addressing the unique challenges Australian businesses face in today's economic environment," Soldan said.

Eftsure has launched its international payment verification service across major markets across Europe, Asia and the Americas, with plans to implement full global coverage in 2026.