Which method of fraud involves manipulating invoices to gain unauthorized payments?

Billing schemes involve the manipulation of invoices to extract unauthorized payments from an organization. In this type of fraud, the perpetrator typically creates false invoices or alters legitimate invoices to inflate amounts due or to include items that were never provided. The intention is to deceive the accounts payable department into processing payments that should not be made.

By controlling the billing process, the fraudster can often bypass internal controls that might otherwise catch such discrepancies. This might involve submitting invoices for services or goods that were never supplied or colluding with outside vendors to facilitate the fraud. The hallmark of a billing scheme is the reliance on invoices as the primary means of executing the fraud, which underscores the importance of rigorous invoice verification processes in any organization.

While check tampering, employee reimbursement schemes, and skimming represent other types of financial fraud, they do not specifically focus on the manipulation of invoices as the primary method of unauthorized payment. Check tampering involves altering checks for personal gain, employee reimbursement schemes relate to submitting false reimbursement claims, and skimming refers to taking cash before it is recorded in the financial system. Each of these methods operates on different mechanisms of fraud, distinguishing them from billing schemes.