Synthetic Vendors: How Fake Businesses Get Through Vendor Onboarding

Fraudsters no longer need to create a completely fictitious company to deceive organizations. Today, they can combine real business information, stolen identities, AI-generated content, fabricated documentation, and convincing online profiles to create synthetic vendors that appear legitimate during the onboarding process. These fraudulent vendors can bypass weak controls, gain access to your vendor master file, and ultimately receive payments that may be difficult or impossible to recover.

We'll explore how synthetic vendors are created, the techniques fraudsters use to make them look authentic, and why traditional onboarding processes often fail to identify them. You'll learn how gaps in vendor validation, authentication, data collection, and approval workflows can create opportunities for fraudulent vendors to enter your systems undetected.

Learning Objectives:

• Define what a synthetic vendor is and how synthetic vendor fraud differs from traditional vendor impersonation fraud.
• Identify the common tactics fraudsters use to create convincing vendor identities, supporting documents and supporting records.
• Recognize warning signs and red flags that may indicate a vendor is not legitimate during onboarding or maintenance activities.
• Evaluate authentication techniques, vendor validations, internal controls, and approval processes that help prevent synthetic vendors from entering the vendor master file.

Speaker:

Debra Richardson

Debra is an accounts payable speaker, consultant, and trainer with over 25 years of experience in AP, AR, general ledger, and financial reporting for Fortune 500 companies including Verizon, General Motors and Aramark.

For over a decade, Debra has focused on Global Vendor Maintenance and implemented a vendor self-registration portal for 140k+ global vendors across five ERPs. In her consultancy, she focuses on authentication techniques,  internal controls, best practices and vendor validations to prevent fraud in the vendor master file.  She is the President of the Central Atlantic Region IOFM Chapter and is the IOFM Ask the Expert for the Vendor Master File Category. 

A Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Debra works with accounts payable and vendor teams to pay the right vendor by offering consulting and vendor process training sessions to avoid fraud, fines and bad vendor data.

She has a YouTube channel where she posts vendor master file tips every Tuesday and hosts a weekly podcast:  “Putting the AP in hAPpy”.

Moderator:

Grace Berube
Senior Content Manager, IOFM

Grace is the Senior Content Manager at the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM), where she has led content strategy and development since 2022. In this role, she oversees all aspects of IOFM’s digital and event-based content, ensuring it remains timely, relevant, and actionable for all financial operations professionals.

Grace manages IOFM’s robust library of site content, leads the organization’s editorial and member webinar programming, and hosts IOFM’s podcast series. She also oversees a team of subject matter experts who contribute thought leadership and educational articles. In additional, Grace curates and manages all speaker content for IOFM’s in-person and virtual events, ensuring consistency and quality across every touchpoint. With nearly three years in the role, Grace brings a deep understanding of the financial operations landscape and a passion for delivering content that empowers professionals to excel in their roles.

Continuing education credits available!

 Continuing Education for IOFM Certification

Receive 1 CEU toward maintaining a certification with IOFM! IOFM's premier certification programs are designed to establish standards for the industry and recognize financial operations professionals who, by possessing related work experience and passing a comprehensive exam, have met stringent requirements for mastering the body of knowledge in their profession. Additional rules may apply, depending on your certification. See full guidelines here. 

Accessibility Information:

IOFM is committed to accessibility. Disability-related accommodation requests for the live event (such as providing live captioning) should be sent to [email protected] by close of business the day before the live webinar. A captioned recording of this webinar can be made available upon request to [email protected].

Cancellation policy:

To cancel your registration for this event, simply contact IOFM customer service at [email protected] no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled start of the event. You can choose to access the full recorded event, or, your credit may be applied toward the purchase of any IOFM product or interactive event. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with this program, we will provide a full refund — no questions asked!

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