Australian businesses are increasingly exposed to international payment scams as AI makes cybercrime cheaper, easier, and more sophisticated, while cost-of-living pressures are driving some skilled workers towards informal or black-market work.

In response, Sydney-based fintech Eftsure has introduced an international payment verification service covering major markets including Europe, the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, Japan and South Korea, with full global coverage expected in 2026.

The move comes as AI tools allow cybercriminals to launch more complex business email compromise (BEC) and fake invoice scams at scale.

Finance leaders highlight the inefficiencies of securing international payments without technology.

Eftsure CEO Jon Soldan points to rising threats to payment security as a key reason for the launch.

“We’re seeing a perfect storm where AI is making cybercrime more accessible to criminals, while cost pressures are forcing legitimate businesses to operate with smaller, stretched IT and accounts teams,”

he says.

“This creates dangerous vulnerabilities, particularly when Australian companies are making payments to foreign bank accounts. Language barriers and different time zones often make traditional controls costly, time-consuming, and more difficult to complete. All of those factors make international payments even riskier.”

International transactions pose risks that domestic fraud prevention systems cannot fully address.

Australian Signals Directorate data shows businesses lost US$84 million to BEC scams in the year to June 2024, with the average loss per business rising to US$55,000 from US$39,000 the previous year.

Eftsure survey data indicates that one-third of finance professionals are unsure where to report fraud, suggesting actual losses are likely higher.

“Government-reported scam losses are large, but our own data indicates that the problem is likely even bigger and costlier,”

says Soldan.

“A significant portion of vendor verifications exhibit potential signs of fraud, and we know that payment fraud often goes unreported or undetected if companies don’t have solutions in place.”

The complexity of verifying overseas suppliers amplifies these risks, and organised crime groups, particularly in countries such as Myanmar, have developed sophisticated operations targeting companies internationally.

Eftsure’s service embeds multi-factor verification throughout payment processes and provides staff with real-time payment information.

It is supported by the company’s database of whitelisted vendors and partnerships with organisations including US clearing house Nacha and BNP Paribas in Europe.

Eftsure is seeking to work with organisations that manage business payment processes.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Australia, based on image by user21016237 via Freepik