Example: How a Chicago Bakery Stopped a Fake Invoice Scam

The Mancini family runs a bakery in Chicago. They had been paying their flour supplier by bank transfer for years. After enabling crypto payments in late 2025, they received an email from what appeared to be their supplier. It said the supplier had updated their crypto wallet address and asked for all future payments to be sent there. The email used the supplier’s name and logo. The sign-off matched previous messages. The only thing that looked slightly different was the email address, which had one letter transposed in the domain^[1]. Rosa, who handles the accounts, almost processed it. She paused because the business had recently agreed to verify any change to payment details by phone before acting on it. She called the supplier on their usual number. The supplier confirmed they had sent no such email. The payment did not go through. The fraud was reported. The supplier’s email had been compromised weeks earlier^[2].