Push Payment Fraud ExamplesA Push Payment Scam For Every Season

Shelley Palmer | January 19, 2026 | 4 min read

Push Payment Fraud Examples: Real-World Case Studies in Scams

Think you’re too smart to fall for a scam? Think again.

Today’s push payment scams are diverse, highly targeted, and frighteningly convincing. Whether it’s a scammer that poses as a bank employee, or a conman that targets well-heeled businesses, fraudsters have a playbook for every scenario.

In this chapter, let’s take a look at the real-world ways scammers exploit push payments to dupe everyone from consumers to corporate controllers.

Push Payment Fraud

How does push payment fraud work and what can merchants do to identify and protect it? In this guide, we’ll share some tips and tricks to help you stay safe.

Knowledge Guide

Common Examples of Push Payment Fraud Attacks

The point of authorized push payment fraud, from a criminal’s perspective, is to convince a victim to move money by impersonating someone that the victim recognizes and trusts. This can be a merchant, an employer, a governmental agency, or even a personal friend.

It can help to have a concrete example. So, here are a few examples of how APP scams might play out in the real world:

Person-to-Person Scams

These are APP scams that target individuals on a personal level. The fraudster will attempt to convince a person that they are a trusted friend or relative, and have the victim deposit money into a non-related account. The fraudster will usually claim to be in some kind of bind; for instance, needing money to pay a past-due bill, or having forgotten login details to an important account.

A target might also receive:

Invoices that appear identical to ones issued by a child’s school, or fake bills from utility companies or service providers.
Emails from a hairdresser, designer, or some other nonessential servicer looking to set up payment options.
Personal ads, dating app scams, or other confidence scams in which scammers pose as people the individual has a relationship of some kind with.

Home Renovation Scam

In a neighborhood or apartment complex, it can be pretty difficult to hide ongoing renovations. It’s no different online, where homeowners might accidentally click fake links in search of contracting services or materials.

Fraudsters are always looking for the means to connect with potential victims. Home renovations are generally big investments, and thus present an opportunity for a big score.

Using fake invoicing with a contractor’s letterhead and details, the fraudster will send the homeowner fake payment information. Once the homeowner pays the fake invoice, the fraudster will disappear.

New Account & Supplier Scams

Fraudsters that have access to a consumer’s email address might be notified when their target opens a new account with an application or service provider online.

The fraudster will send a fake payment request, then use spoofing techniques to convince the consumer the invoice comes directly from that company’s billing department. This can be particularly tricky if auto-billing is enabled.

Merchants, too, can be targeted for this scam. All the fraudster needs to do is convince someone in the company’s billing department that they are a legitimate account provider. When this happens, the scam can roll on for as long as it takes the company to identify the scam.

Property Purchase Scams

If a fraudster is able to work out that a consumer is in the market for a new home or property, fraudsters may take advantage.

A scammer can pose as a mortgage broker or bank loan officer involved in the exchange. Or, they may operate silently, without any other party’s knowledge. In either case, the scammer intercepts communications between parties, then changes relevant payment details to hijack any payment and reroute the funds exchanged to their own account.

As you might imagine, this type of APP fraud can be devastating for consumers if enough money is on the line.

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Push Payment Fraud: Real-World Case Studies

So, we’ve discussed what push payment fraud looks like in theory. But, what about in practice?

Below, I’ve outlined a few case studies that should help illustrate the threat posed.

Real Estate Firm Targeted by Impersonator

Petty Son and Prestwich, a UK-based real estate firm, published a post on their blog outlining how they were targeted by an authorized push payment fraud scheme.

“The fraudsters targeted our accounts department by replicating our director’s email address, so any correspondence they chose to send would appear as if the email had come from him,” they explain. The fraudster sent multiple emails to an employee in the department with questions aimed at “warming up” the individual.

“It was only when the accounts department phoned our director informing them we had reached our payment limit for the day, so they therefore wouldn't be able to make the payment, that the scam was discovered. On another day the payment would have been made. It was for £19,000! We now have a code word in place to thwart any further attacks.”

UK Consumer Conned Out of £14,500 in APP Scam

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service revealed in a case study that a consumer named Anna had been tricked into sending £14,500, the entirety of her account balance, to a fraudster posing as her bank.

Despite regulations by the Payment Service Regulator (PSR) requiring UK banks to make victims of APP fraud whole, Anna’s bank refused to issue her a refund. As a result, Anna had to borrow money from friends and family, developed anxiety, and struggled “to trust other people after what happened to her.”

Only after lodging a complaint with the UK Financial Ombudsman Service did Anna’s bank provide her with a refund, along with £500 in additional compensation for causing her several months of emotional distress.

UK Business Owner Loses £1.6 Million in APP Fraud Attack

In 2023, the financial controller of Kent Brushes, a Hertfordshire-based company that supplies hairbrushes to the UK royal family, was tricked into voluntarily giving a group of fraudsters access to the company’s bank account under the false pretenses that the firm’s money was at risk.

After gaining access to the account, the fraudsters “then proceeded to steal £1.6m, via dozens of fraudulent transactions, in less than 20 minutes.”

Steve Wright, the owner of Kent Brushes, said that both his bank, Barclays, as well as Acton Fraud, the UK’s national cybercrime reporting center, refused to make him whole.

Although the theft did not bring his company, which generates £11 million a year in revenue, to a complete standstill, Wright admitted that the fraud was nonetheless painful, saying that the “setback necessitated a revaluation of our near-term strategies, resulting in a slower rollout of new products to maintain a stable cash flow.”

Push Payment Fraud

Push Payment Fraud ExamplesA Push Payment Scam For Every Season