The fake executive asking for a bank transfer

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The fake executive asking for a bank transfer

No bank transfer should ever go out on a verbal request alone, even if the voice sounds like the managing director’s: the person who receives the request calls back on a number already known, and a second manager approves. This rule stops CEO fraud, which plays on urgency and secrecy.

How it happens

A call or voice message reaches the accounts department: management is supposedly in a meeting, a confidential deal must be settled today, and nobody must be told. The number is unknown, or imitates the company’s number. The same scam exists by email, often after a mailbox has been hacked, and in the form of a fake supplier announcing new bank details.

The internal rule

  • No bank transfer on a verbal request or voice message alone.
  • Always call back on a number already known, never on the one given in the message.
  • Every unusual transfer and every change of bank details approved by a second person.
  • The managing director commits to never asking anyone to bypass this rule, even in an emergency.

If a transfer has already gone out, call your bank immediately to ask for it to be recalled, then report it to the police.

Further reading: Phishing, texts and calls: the requests to refuse

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Sources consulted on 19 October 2026: Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr – Fraude au faux ordre de virement (FOVI).
Article written by IT CyberWall.

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