Why AI is making billing fraud worse (and how your business can prevent it)

Fraudsters have always relied on a level of deception. But today, thanks to AI, that deception is sharper, faster and harder to spot. For many organisations, this means that the usual ways of identifying a fake invoice just don’t cut it anymore.

Email invoice scams have been around for years, but artificial intelligence has supercharged their impact—making them more widespread, more convincing, and much harder to detect. So how do these scams work, and how can organisations protect themselves?

Business email compromise (BEC) scams are among the most common types of fraud, and they often involve a simple yet effective trick: tampering with the invoicing process.

Here’s what that might look like:

Many of these emails appear to come from a real business email address, which means they look completely legitimate. To make matters worse, scammers often set up auto-forwarding and deletion rules to hide their activity, making the scam harder to detect from the inside.

AI has made it easier than ever for fraudsters to carry out invoice scams with alarming precision. Here’s how:

In short, the obvious identifiers accounts teams could once keep an eye out for—like typos, formatting issues or awkward phrasing—aren’t anywhere near as easy to spot anymore.

Fraud isn’t a fringe issue. It’s systemic.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ 2024 Report to the Nations, organisations worldwide lose an estimated 5% of annual revenue to fraud.

In Australia alone, the ACCC reported that $16.2 million was reported lost to payment redirection scams in 2023—a 3% increase in loss from the year before. 

But the problem isn’t just fake invoices—it’s the email inbox itself.

Email is inherently vulnerable. It’s easy to intercept, manipulate, or impersonate. Attachments can be altered. Messages can be redirected. Even the most secure-looking emails can be breached without detection.

So, what’s the solution?

Tickstar eInvoicing offers a safer, more reliable way to exchange invoices without relying on vulnerable email systems.

Instead of sending PDF attachments from person to person, eInvoices are transmitted directly from your accounting software to your customer’s own system via the secure, internationally recognised Peppol network.

Here’s what makes it different:

In short: eInvoicing reduces the risk of fraud by removing email as the weak link. It’s the modern solution to a very modern problem.

AI has changed the game for fraudsters, but businesses don’t have to sit back and accept the risks.

eInvoicing provides a smarter, safer way to transact with customers and suppliers. And with Tickstar, you can integrate secure eInvoicing into your existing systems with ease, no matter your size or industry.

Want to learn more? eInvoicing is suitable for businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes. Contact us to see how Tickstar eInvoicing could work for you.