At this time the care sector and other businesses needing to procure PPE and other essential
goods are particularly vulnerable and the fraudsters know this.
In amongst all the strain of responding to the challenges and demands of COVID-19,
businesses are urged to maintain as much normal rigour as possible in their internal systems
and processes, safety practices and physical and cyber security.
To help prevent procurement fraud:
Top 10 Tips
1. Ensure all staff who are able to make or are involved in financial decisions are
trained how to identify procurement fraud.
2. Never give in to pressure or threats that it is a time-sensitive issue or an urgent
matter. A genuine organisation will have no issues with you verifying a request,
however a fraudster will often try to pressurise you into acting immediately.
3. Ensure a three-way match is carried out. Do the amounts documented on the
requisition, purchase order and invoice all align?
4. Adopt dual control procedures for authorising payments. Ensure that a senior
member of your team reviews your actions and formally authorises the payment.
5. Ensure the procurement process is followed and is enforced. Has an order been
placed before the procurement paperwork has been raised? If so, why?
6. Carefully check the sender's email address to identify if it exactly matches your
known and trusted records and call your supplier to verify the email is genuine.
7. Be vigilant to any clerical or spelling errors within emails which may indicate the
email is fraudulent’.
9. If it is a new supplier, carry out internet searches to check if they are genuine, are
there any customer reviews and phone any listed landline to check.
10. Be alert to any requests to alter bank details. Carry out an internet search of the new
bank account sort code and account details to uncover: Location of the bank (to be
checked against the company address) and whether there are any blogs or reports
available to indicate the communication is a scam.
Report anything suspicious to your bank immediately.
To report a crime, call Police Scotland on 101 or 999 in an emergency
Further information on preventing fraud can be found at