Clear Path step · Business · Your industry's rules and risks
Tell clients at the start that you'll never change payment instructions by email
Clients know your payment instructions never change by email, so a fake update looks wrong to them on sight.
Why it matters: Real estate closings and large client deposits are prime targets for fake 'updated wiring instructions'. Telling clients up front makes them your second line of defense.
On your path if you picked “Professional services” for “What's your industry?”.
Do it
- Add the payment-instructions statement to engagement letters, closing packets and email signatures.
- Deliver wiring instructions in person or through a secure portal.
- Call the client on a known number before any large deposit.
- Know the first-hour steps if a wire goes astray.
Say this: If an email says wiring instructions have changed, I call on a known number before any money moves.
Check it worked: Every engagement letter and closing packet says payment instructions never change by email, gives a known number to verify, and staff follow the callback rule for every deposit or wire.
Simply put
It's like a builder telling you on day one: 'We'll never change our bank details by email, so if it happens, call us.' Your clients become a second line of defense, even if your own mailbox is the one compromised.
In detail
Attackers can sit in a compromised mailbox for weeks, learning closing dates; the client-facing statement works even when your own email is the compromised one.
If this is new to you: Not sure what to write? One sentence does it: 'We will never change payment instructions by email; call us on this number to check.' Add it to every engagement letter.
Points toward the Long View: clients who verify every payment instruction with you, by habit.