Spotting a fake or altered freight invoice

The warning signs of a fake or altered invoice from a carrier, agent or association, and the checks a forwarder or transporter should run before paying.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Freight businesses pay a lot of invoices to a lot of parties: carriers, subcontracted hauliers, shipping lines, port agents, warehouse operators, industry associations. Many arrive by e-mail as PDFs, many are urgent because a container is waiting, and many come from people the accounts clerk has never met. That is precisely the environment fraudsters prefer.

The fake rarely looks fake. It is usually a convincing copy of a real supplier's invoice with a new bank account, or a genuine invoice altered to add a container that never moved, or a demand that appears to come from a body you really do pay. This article lists the warning signs that authorities on the subject point to, and the controls a transporter or forwarder in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can put between a suspicious PDF and a payment.

Even the federation gets impersonated

The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) warns of scam e-mails aimed at its members. It says its official communications, including invoices, come only from the fiata.org domain, and that members should check invoices in their Member Area. That warning, posted on FIATA's own home page, is a useful thing to show staff who think this only happens to other people.

The lesson travels well beyond FIATA. Any organisation you pay regularly, from a national freight association to a shipping line's local agent, can be imitated by a sender address one letter off from the real one. Before paying any membership fee, levy or invoice that arrives by e-mail, check where it came from and whether the same invoice appears in the organisation's own portal or account statement.

Red flags in the supplier

ICAEW sets out how to recognise and deal with fake invoices in its guidance for finance teams. It lists these supplier red flags:

• a newly created business with little or no trading history;
• unexplained changes to bank account details; and
• suppliers that cannot be independently verified through trusted channels.

In freight, the first often looks like a new subcontractor offered at short notice when your usual hauliers are busy. The second is the commonest of all: an e-mail from a "carrier" saying their bank has changed and the next payment should go elsewhere. The third covers the agent at a distant port whom nobody in your office has ever spoken to.

Red flags in the invoice

ICAEW also warns that mismatches between the invoice and the purchase order, delivery note or contract terms are warning signs, whether in pricing, quantities or VAT treatment. So are invoices labelled "urgent", or that come with pressure to bypass the usual controls.

For a freight business, a mismatch might be:

• a rate per load higher than the rate agreed on the order;
• more loads, pallets or containers than the trip sheet or proof of delivery shows;
• VAT charged where the agreed service is treated differently, or a VAT number that does not match the supplier you know; or
• a route or vehicle the job never used.

Line the invoice up against the bill of lading

Investopedia recommends verifying the details on a bill of lading, including product codes, quantities and the carrier's signature, and regularly matching freight bills with the corresponding bills of lading to keep payments accurate. That match catches the altered invoice as well as the invented one: if the bill shows two containers and the invoice charges for three, the third needs an explanation before anyone pays.

When something looks wrong: pause and call back

ICAEW's advice is that when an invoice raises concerns, finance teams should pause processing and verify the supplier independently, using contact details already on record rather than those on the invoice. In practice:

1. Stop the payment run for that invoice; do not reply to the e-mail it came in.
2. Phone the supplier on the number in your own supplier file, not the one in the e-mail signature.
3. Ask the person you know there to confirm the invoice number, amount and bank account.
4. Record what was confirmed, by whom and when.
5. Release payment only once the call-back is on record.

Urgency is not a reason to skip this. A real carrier will wait an hour for a call-back; a fraudster is counting on you not to make it.

The controls Achekam puts in the way

Achekam does not judge whether an invoice is genuine. It puts structure around how invoices reach the ledger, so that a fake has more hurdles to clear:

• One supplier list. Quotations, orders and bills pick suppliers from a single list, which checks for duplicates by name or VAT number. A "new" carrier that is really an existing one under a slightly different name is easier to catch at the door.
• Matching against the order. When a supplier invoice is recorded against a purchase order, it is compared with what was ordered and what arrived. If the price or quantity differs, the invoice is held until someone writes a note explaining the resolution.
• No double posting. Posting a matched supplier invoice puts it in the ledger as expense, input VAT and trade payables, and the supplier's invoice number stops the same invoice being posted twice.
• An integrity review. A procurement integrity review, sold as its own add-on, raises questions about warning patterns such as competing quotes that share contact or bank details, or a supplier paid into an employee's bank account. Its check for purchases split to stay under a threshold does nothing until a threshold is set, and the app cannot set one today, so do not count on that particular check.

None of these replaces the call-back. A fraudster who has taken over a real carrier's e-mail can send an invoice that matches the order perfectly and differs only in the bank account. Read keeping subcontracted carriers on one supplier list for setting up the list itself, and paying many carriers in one run for the payment side.

A one-page rule for the accounts desk

Print the table, pin it above the accounts desk, and run one past invoice through it this week to see where your process would have let a fake through.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.