Eftsure extends verification platform to recruitment industry

Eftsure chief product officer Ramesh Menon said the recruitment industry is uniquely exposed as these firms operate in some of the most complex payment environments in Australia and New Zealand.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1.1 million people in Australia worked as independent contractors as of August 2025, or 7.6 per cent of all employed people.

Administrative and support services, the industry segment that includes recruitment and labour hire, has the highest contractor density in the country at 22 per cent of all employed people.

“A single recruitment agency can pay thousands of contractors, sole traders, temps, and locums each cycle,” said Menon.

“New payees are added every week, and bank details are typically supplied by candidates themselves, often by email. The mix of high volume, high turnover, individual payees, and time pressure is precisely the condition fraudsters look for.”

Eftsure's expanded verification engine confirms, for every payee, that the individual is who they claim to be, that the bank account belongs to them, and that any subsequent changes to banking details or risk signals are flagged before the next payment runs.

The continuous monitoring capability that already alerts customers to changes in vendor bank accounts now extends to individual payees, the company said.

Michelle Cram, vice president of customer operations at Eftsure, said while single-layer verification has its place, it cannot carry the weight at the volume and turnover that recruitment firms operate at.

"Recruitment payments run through ERP, payroll batches, and bulk file uploads. Verification at this scale needs to operate at the payee level, before payments are loaded, and continuously through the payee lifecycle," said Cram.

"Bank statements, phone confirmations, and one-off name-and-account matches can all be fabricated or manipulated. A single layer of verification is not enough for AP teams processing large volumes of contractor payments, especially when AI tools and large language models are helping fraudsters identify control gaps in minutes rather than weeks."

According to the ACCC's Targeting Scams report, Australia lost $166.8 million to payment redirection scams in 2025.

Eftsure said this type of scam hits accounts payable directly: a criminal impersonates a contractor, sends updated bank details, and the agency pays the fraudster. The contractor is still owed their pay, and the business pays twice.

“A single recruitment agency can pay thousands of contractors, sole traders, temps, and locums each cycle,” said Menon.

“New payees are added every week, and bank details are typically supplied by candidates themselves, often by email. The mix of high volume, high turnover, individual payees, and time pressure is precisely the condition fraudsters look for.”

The expansion is backed by Eftsure's payment guarantee, subject to terms and conditions. The expanded platform also provides fraud prevention for insurers, superannuation funds, credit unions, mortgage brokers, NDIS providers, and digital marketplace operators.