Protecting Financial Staff from Emerging Fraud Threats in China
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
In this episode of the Hong Kong and China Compliance Essentials podcast, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia looks at the fraud tactics now being aimed at finance teams in China, and how to defend against them. It runs for about nine minutes.
About the speaker
Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is Head of Business Advisory at Woodburn Accountants & Advisors. She has spent more than two decades helping foreign companies set up and run their operations in China and Hong Kong, and she leads the firm's Woodburn Academy sessions.
What this episode covers
The Beijing Daxing Tax Bureau warning about a surge in fake tax audit notices
Impersonation fraud, phishing schemes and trojan attacks aimed at financial personnel
Emergency reporting, payment suspension and risk assessment after an attempt
Training, internal controls and cybersecurity that actually reduce exposure
Building a detailed response plan before you need one
Why this matters if you have a finance team in China
Fraud aimed at finance staff works because it imitates something ordinary: a notice from the tax bureau, an instruction from a director, an invoice that looks like the last one. The defence is unglamorous. Segregation of duties, a payment approval process that cannot be short-circuited by urgency, and a team that has been told explicitly that no legitimate request will ever require them to bypass it.
Strong controls start with the books, so cloud accounting and financial reporting, a China finance manager who owns the process, and an annual tax and audit cycle that would catch an anomaly all matter here.
Watch the full episode
Thinking about setting up in China?
Woodburn Accountants & Advisors helps foreign companies register and run entities in China and Hong Kong, from company registration and trademark protection through to accounting, payroll, tax and audit. If this episode has raised questions about your own controls, get in touch with our team.