The payment you didn't authorise: how fraudsters are targeting AP teams in 2026

Fraud in accounts payable doesn’t usually announce itself. It looks like a routine bank detail update. A new supplier that’s already been vetted. A phone call from someone who sounds exactly like your CFO. By the time anyone realizes something is wrong, the payment has already gone out.

Attacks on AP teams have evolved fast in 2026. Business email compromise, fake supplier setup, payment diversion, and AI-generated voice and video impersonation are now targeting the same handful of moments in the AP process: supplier bank account changes, new vendor onboarding, and exception approvals made under pressure. These aren’t edge cases. They’re the routine activities every AP team handles every week, and the tactics being used against them today look nothing like the fraud attempts of even a year or two ago.

In this session, we walk through real, documented 2026 cases of how this fraud actually happens, the specific AP processes that create the biggest exposure right now, and the controls that stop it. You’ll leave with a clear picture of how modern AP fraud works today and a practical checklist you can put in place immediately.

What we’ll cover:

• Why AP fraud in 2026 is built to look completely normal
• How AI-generated voice and video are being used right now to impersonate executives and suppliers
• Why a supplier bank detail change is the single highest-risk moment in AP
• How new vendor onboarding and dormant supplier reactivation quietly expose finance teams
• Why exception and approval overrides made under time pressure are a common blind spot
• What practical controls actually stop these 2026-era attacks before a payment goes out