Every year, factoring companies quietly write off millions to a problem that rarely makes headlines: invoices that were never real to begin with. In 2024, 44% of businesses reported being hit by invoice fraud, with each incident costing an average of $22,000. For a factor moving hundreds of invoices through the pipeline every month, those numbers stop being a statistic and start being a margin problem. That is why serious factoring support services are no longer a cost center. They are insurance on every dollar advanced.

The International Factoring Association (IFA) called out synthetic-identity schemes and duplicate invoicing as the two fastest-growing threats going into 2025. And the hard truth is that once funds are advanced on a fraudulent invoice, recovery is rare. The money is usually gone before the coffee gets cold. So the real question is not whether fraud will reach your portfolio.…