Wire transfer fraud is any scheme that causes funds to be sent by bank wire to an account controlled by a criminal — usually by deceiving an authorized employee into initiating the transfer, or by altering the destination details of a legitimate payment. Because wires settle fast and lack chargebacks, they are the preferred cash-out channel for corporate fraud.

How the attack works

  1. Entry: a compromised mailbox, a vishing call, or an impersonated executive (CEO fraud).
  2. Redirection: either a new "urgent" payment or — more commonly — changed bank details on a payment you were going to make anyway.
  3. Under-the-radar sizing: amounts placed below dual-approval thresholds to need only one deceived person.
  4. Dispersal: funds hop through mule accounts within hours; after ~72 hours, recovery odds collapse.

Warning signs

  • Any change to payment details, however routine it looks.
  • Urgency plus confidentiality in a payment request.
  • Requests arriving when the purported requester is known to be unreachable.
  • New instructions "confirmed" only through the same channel they arrived on.

Prevention

One control dominates: out-of-band callback verification, enforced so payments cannot release without it. See the full checklist in how to prevent wire transfer fraud.