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Retrieve company phone by GSTIN to stop supplier payment fraud
Retrieve company phone by GSTIN to stop supplier payment fraud: call back on an independent line before changing bank details or paying a new vendor.
GSTIN Lookup
GST Identification Number
27ABCDE1234F1Z0
- Legal nameSample Traders Pvt Ltd
- StateMaharashtra (27)
- RegistrationActive
- Phone+91 98XXX XXXXX
- Emailc****@example.com
Illustrative result. Request a sample format for live records.
Reading time 9 min
Last reviewed August 2026
Retrieve company phone by GSTIN is one of the cheapest fraud controls a finance team can adopt. Payment fraud aimed at businesses often follows a simple script. An email arrives, apparently from a regular supplier, saying their bank account has changed and the next payment should go to a new account. Or a new “supplier” sends invoices for goods that never arrived, complete with a valid-looking GSTIN. In both cases, the fraudster supplies their own phone number for verification, so any call back reaches them. The defence is to call the supplier on a phone you retrieved independently, using the GSTIN as the key, rather than any number in the suspicious message.
This guide explains how to build that callback control into accounts payable and procurement, and how to retrieve a company phone that the fraudster does not control.
How bank-detail change fraud works
Fraudsters gain access to a supplier’s email account, or create an address that looks almost identical, and watch correspondence until a payment is due. They then send a convincing message, often on the supplier’s real letterhead copied from earlier invoices, announcing new bank details. The message may include a cancelled cheque image and a phone number for questions.
A finance clerk who calls that number speaks to the fraudster, who confirms the change. The payment goes to the new account and is withdrawn quickly. The real supplier, still unpaid, chases a week later, and by then the money is gone.
How fake supplier fraud works
In another pattern, a fraudster registers or borrows a GSTIN and submits invoices to a company, sometimes with the help of an insider, for goods or services never provided. The invoices look correct, carry a real GSTIN and may even appear in the auto-drafted tax statements if the fraudster files returns. Verification calls go to a number the fraudster supplied.
Retrieving the company phone independently from the GSTIN often reveals that the registration belongs to a real business that has never heard of you, or to a shell with no genuine operations.
The principle: never verify using the requester's contact details
The core rule is simple. When someone asks you to change payment details or pay a new supplier, do not verify using any contact information in the request itself. Instead, retrieve a contact for the business from a source the requester does not control, and call that number.
The GSTIN is a strong starting point because it identifies the legal entity independently of the email or letter in front of you. From it, you can confirm the business’s identity and addresses and then find a phone through independent sources.
Need the contact behind a GSTIN?Get the sample format with verified business contact fields.
Step one: check the GSTIN itself
Look up the GSTIN on the supplier’s invoice or in your vendor master. Confirm the legal and trade names match the supplier you know. Check the status is active. Check the principal place of business matches the address you expect. A request purportedly from a supplier in Pune that carries a GSTIN registered in another state, or under a different legal name, is a red flag on its own.
For new suppliers, also note the registration date. A registration created weeks before its first invoice to you deserves closer scrutiny.
Step two: retrieve an independent company phone
The tax record will not give you a phone; registration contacts are private. Find one elsewhere. The best independent sources are your own historical records from before the request: phone numbers on old invoices, purchase orders and contracts, contacts your purchase team has used for years. Next best are the supplier’s own website, its company registry record and annual reports for larger firms, and business listings that show the same trade name and address.
Avoid any number that first appeared in the request, its attachments or recent emails that might have been compromised.
Step three: make the callback properly
Call the independent number and ask for someone you know, or for the accounts receivable team. Do not mention the details in the request first. Instead, ask them to confirm their current bank account for receiving payments, or whether they have recently changed it. If they confirm a change and the details match the request, proceed. If they are surprised, you have probably just stopped a fraud.
Record the callback: date, number called, person spoken to and what they confirmed. That record protects you should the payment ever be questioned.
When the supplier is a large company
For large suppliers, the independent phone will often be a switchboard. Ask for accounts receivable or the treasury team. Many large companies have formal processes for bank detail changes, including signed letters on letterhead and verification from their side. Ask what their process is and follow it.
If the supplier operates across several states, make sure you reach the office responsible for the registration billing you, identified by the state code in the GSTIN.
When the supplier is a small firm
For small suppliers, the independent number is likely the proprietor’s business mobile from your old records or the shop’s landline. Call it, speak to the owner and confirm. Small suppliers are frequent targets because their email security is often weak, and they are usually grateful when a customer’s check prevents a fraud that would otherwise have left them unpaid.
Building the control into your process
Make independent callbacks mandatory for every bank detail change and for every new supplier before first payment. Write the rule into your accounts payable procedures, and make sure the vendor master cannot be updated with new bank details unless the callback record is attached. Separate duties so that the person who receives the request is not the only person who verifies and approves it.
Train staff to recognise pressure tactics. Fraudsters often claim urgency, threaten to stop supplies or pose as senior executives. A firm, polite insistence on the callback process defeats most of them.
The callback works best when every supplier record holds a trusted phone, captured at onboarding and confirmed independently. Store it in a field that cannot be changed by the same process that changes bank details. Review trusted contacts periodically and confirm them whenever there is a significant change in the relationship.
If a supplier’s trusted phone stops working, retrieve a new one independently using the GSTIN, and confirm it before relying on it for future callbacks.
Invoice redirection through look-alike domains
A related trick uses email addresses that differ from the supplier’s real domain by a single character, a swapped letter or a different ending. Messages from these addresses can look perfect, especially on a phone screen. Staff should check the sender’s full address on any payment-related message, but the callback is the real safeguard: even a flawless forgery fails when the clerk dials the supplier’s known accounts line and the supplier denies sending it.
Encourage suppliers to tell you, in advance and through a confirmed channel, how they will notify any genuine bank change. Some suppliers agree to send such changes only by signed letter followed by a call from a named person, which makes impostor requests easier to spot.
Callbacks for customers paying you
The same logic protects your own customers. Fraudsters impersonate your business to redirect their payments to you. Tell customers clearly, on invoices and in your onboarding, that your bank details will not change by email alone and that they should call your known number before acting on any change. Customers who follow this advice protect both of you, and your receivables stay intact.
Want to see real match quality?See the sample format for your own GST numbers.
Auditing the control
Controls fade unless checked. Internal audit, or a senior finance person, should periodically sample bank detail changes and new supplier payments to confirm that a callback record exists, that the number called came from an independent source and that someone other than the requester approved the change. Gaps found in an audit are far cheaper to fix than gaps found after a loss.
Using GST data as an extra signal
GST data offers other useful signals. A supplier whose filings stop suddenly, or whose registration is suspended, may be in difficulty or may have been impersonated. A supplier claiming a new bank account in a city far from any of its declared business addresses deserves extra questions. A supplier whose invoices to you do not appear in your auto-drafted statements may not be filing, which affects your credit and may signal deeper problems.
These signals are not proof of fraud, but together with an independent callback they make it much harder for fraud to slip through.
What to do if you suspect fraud
If the callback reveals that the supplier did not send the request, do not reply to the fraudulent email or call the number in it. Inform the genuine supplier so they can secure their email. Preserve the messages and attachments. Report the matter to your bank, to the national cybercrime reporting channels and, where money has been lost, to the police promptly; speed improves the chance of freezing funds.
Review whether your own systems were involved, for example whether an insider was approached or your email was compromised.
Privacy and data care
Trusted supplier contacts, including proprietors’ mobiles, are personal data. Keep them in controlled systems, use them for supplier management and fraud prevention and limit access. A vendor master with bank details and contacts is itself a target for fraudsters, so protect it carefully.
A worked example from a manufacturing company
A manufacturing company’s accounts team receives an email that appears to come from a long-standing raw material supplier, announcing a new bank account and attaching a letter on the supplier’s letterhead with a phone number. The clerk follows procedure: she checks the GSTIN in the vendor master, confirms it is active and unchanged, and retrieves the supplier’s accounts phone from invoices received over the past two years.
She calls that number. The supplier’s accountant has sent no such letter and has not changed banks. The supplier discovers its email account was compromised and secures it. The fraudulent request is reported, no money is lost and the clerk’s callback record goes into the file. Management later cites the case when extending the callback rule to all payment detail changes.
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On this page
- How bank-detail change fraud works
- How fake supplier fraud works
- The principle: never verify using the requester's contact details
- Step one: check the GSTIN itself
- Step two: retrieve an independent company phone
- Step three: make the callback properly
- When the supplier is a large company
- When the supplier is a small firm
- Building the control into your process
- Maintaining a trusted contact for each supplier
- Invoice redirection through look-alike domains
- Callbacks for customers paying you
- Auditing the control
- Using GST data as an extra signal
- What to do if you suspect fraud
- Privacy and data care
- A worked example from a manufacturing company
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Disclaimer: GST To Phone Number is an independent data service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Goods and Services Tax Network, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, or any government department. GSTIN verification should always be confirmed against the official GST portal. Contact data is provided for legitimate business use and must be used in line with applicable telecom, privacy and data-protection rules.