How supplier fraud actually works, and which checks catch it

Elaborate impersonation is rare. Most losses come from a handful of dull, repeatable patterns — and being honest about which ones a registration check catches matters more than listing every possibility.

Pattern 1: the closed business still invoicing

A business deregisters but continues issuing paperwork against its old number. Invoices look entirely normal, because until recently they were.

Caught by a status check. The registration returns 폐업 with a closure date, and any invoice dated after it is invalid. This is the pattern verification is genuinely good at.

Pattern 2: the borrowed identity

Someone sends you a real 사업자등록증 belonging to a real, active company they have no connection to. Every detail checks out, because every detail is genuine — it just is not theirs.

Not caught by verification. The certificate is real and the business is trading. What catches it is contacting the company through details you found independently — its own website, a directory, a number you looked up — rather than through the channel that approached you.

Pattern 3: the changed bank details

A genuine relationship, a genuine invoice, and an email — from a compromised or lookalike account — saying the bank details have changed.

Not caught by verification. Nothing about the business has changed. Only a voice call to a previously known number catches this. See paying a Korean supplier.

Pattern 4: the entity that is not what it appears

A sole trader presenting as an established corporation, or a dormant company reactivated to front a deal. Nothing false is stated; the impression is simply managed.

Partly caught. The middle two digits of the tax number distinguish individuals from corporations, so the number and the claim can be compared — see reading a Korean company name. Substance, as opposed to structure, needs a registry extract or financials.

Pattern 5: the supplier who simply cannot deliver

No deception at all. A real, registered, trading business takes an order beyond its capacity and fails to fulfil it.

Not caught by anything here. Registration is an administrative fact, not a capability assessment. Sample orders, trade references and staged payments are what address this, and no database will substitute for them.

What this adds up to

Registration checks are cheap, fast, and decisive for one specific failure — paying a business that is no longer there. They are not a substitute for knowing who you are talking to. Both matter; only one of them is free.