EMAIL SECURITY FOR RECRUITMENT AGENCIESContractor pay,
paid to the real payee.
A recruitment inbox takes attachments from strangers all day, and a weekly pay run gives a criminal a deadline to work to.
Dear Alex,
Following a group restructure, contractor payroll previously run by Pellbrook Umbrella Ltd is now handled by Pellbrook Umbrella Services Ltdnote 1. Please update our payment details on your system before this week's pay runnote 2, so your contractors are paid on time.
Note 1: A near-identical company to the one you pay
Note 2: New bank details, timed for the pay run
Account name: Pellbrook Umbrella Services Ltd Sort code: 11-22-33 Account number: 12345678
Your contractors do not need to do anything, and our invoices will come from this address from now on. Please reply to confirmnote 3 once your records are updated.
Note 3: Confirmation by email, not a call
Kind regards, Payroll Team
SuspiciousJatzo's result for this fictional email
What moved the score
- Supplier payment details changed+16
- Business email compromise pattern+14
Invoice and mandate fraud, as UK Finance recorded it.
- £41.3 millionlost to invoice and mandate fraud in 2025
- 2,305cases recorded in the year
- 68%of the losses came from business accounts
Criminals intercept emails or take over an email account, then pose as a supplier, a solicitor or a builder with new bank details. UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026, June 2026 (opens in a new tab)
What recruitment agencies worry about.
And what Jatzo does about each, in the inbox your team already uses.
Contractor pay redirected
An email apparently from a contractor, or from a cloned umbrella company, asks for pay to go to a new account just before the run.
What Jatzo does
The check flags a change of bank details with a warning sign beside it, and a High risk result emails your payroll lead before the run goes.
Business and Business ProCVs that are not CVs
Consultants open attachments from strangers all day. That is the job, and it is the easiest way in for anything harmful.
What Jatzo does
The check looks inside attachments for macros, hidden scripts, risky archives and web pages posing as documents, before anybody opens them.
Every planCandidates' personal data
An agency holds passports, right to work documents and bank details. A phishing email that takes one consultant's password can expose them.
What Jatzo does
The check flags fake sign-in requests and requests for a sign-in code. Training shows every consultant what these emails look like, with a record of who completed it.
Business Pro
How it unfolds for recruitment agencies.
An umbrella is cloned
Criminals set up a near-identical name to a genuine umbrella company the agency already uses.
The pay run nears
The weekly pay run gives them a deadline to work to.
- Check it here
New details arrive
An email asks the agency to update the umbrella company's payment details before the run.
The pay goes astray
Unless payroll confirms through the usual contact, the week's pay goes to the criminal's account.
The gold mark is where Jatzo's check fits: somebody has the email open and nothing has been paid yet.
The check before you pay.
Six steps, every time. Print it, put it by whoever pays the invoices, and agree that nobody skips it because somebody senior is in a hurry.
Download the one-page checklist (PDF)Never change an umbrella company's, contractor's or supplier's bank details because of an email alone.
Ring them on the number you already hold from onboarding, not one in the email.
For an umbrella company, check the company number against the FCSA or Professional Passport list.
A second person in payroll or finance approves every bank detail change before the next pay run.
For a first payment to new details, send a small amount and have the payee confirm receipt by phone.
If money has gone, ring your bank's fraud line at once, then report to Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or reportfraud.police.uk (Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland).
What the agency gets.
It does not replace the call. It makes sure somebody makes it. Jatzo adds a check beside the message in Outlook and Gmail, at the moment somebody decides whether to pay, reply or click, and your existing email protection stays as it is.
Check before the pay run
Every planAnybody in payroll unsure about an umbrella company's new bank details presses Check in Outlook or Gmail and sees a score out of 100 with the reasons.
Umbrella invoices against confirmed details
Separate licence, from £129 a yearInvoice Fraud Checker, a separate Windows program, compares the bank details on each umbrella company's invoice with the ones you confirmed, and says Stop when they differ. About the Invoice Fraud Checker
Your payroll lead hears at once
Business and Business ProWhen anybody checks a message scoring High risk or above, an email goes to addresses you choose at your own domain, such as your payroll lead's.
Training for consultants who open attachments
Business ProBusiness Pro includes every Training Centre course, Suspicious attachments among them, for everyone in the team, with a record of who completed it.
See what is aimed at the agency
Business and Business ProThe organisation threat report counts the checks that reached Suspicious or above by kind of attack, the last 30 days against the 30 before, and names nobody.
Which plan fits: an example
For recruitment agencies with 12 people, we suggest Business Pro: £144 a month, or £1,440 a year paid annually.
That is £12 a person a month.
Consultants open strangers' attachments all day, and training for every one of them, with a record of who completed it, is on Business Pro.
Business Pro includes the threat report, so you know what is being aimed at the agency and whether it is getting worse: every email your team checked that came back Suspicious or above, by kind of attack, the last 30 days against the 30 before, naming nobody. At the start of each month a report goes by email to the addresses you choose, saying what was checked and what is still waiting.
- The Check button in Outlook, including on a phone, and in Gmail, for everybody in the team.
- Staff do nothing. Whoever looks after your email adds it once, for everybody.
- Nothing to replace. Your email, and the protection it already has, stay as they are.
- Jatzo keeps the score and the findings for up to 90 days, never the email or its attachments.
- Pay monthly, or a year in advance for ten months' price.
The Invoice Fraud Checker is a separate licence, from £129 a year. About the Invoice Fraud Checker
What your sector's own bodies say.
Each point is linked to where it was published, with its date.
If an umbrella company you already use asks to change its payment details, confirm it through your usual contact channels, and check a new umbrella company's number against the FCSA or Professional Passport member lists.
Vet new clients and contractors thoroughly before any work is placed or paid.
Report Fraud replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. The number, 0300 123 2040, did not change. GOV.UK, Report Fraud: new service from City of London Police, December 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Questions recruitment agencies ask.
Does Jatzo check CVs and other attachments?
As part of checking the email, yes. Jatzo looks inside supported attachments without running them, for things such as a file type that does not match its name, Office macros and links inside. A clean result does not make a file safe to open.
Can Jatzo vet a new umbrella company?
No. Jatzo checks emails, not companies. Check a new umbrella company's number against the FCSA or Professional Passport lists, as the REC advises, and use Jatzo on the emails that ask you to change who you pay.
Will our IT company need to do anything?
A little, once. Whoever looks after your email proves your domain with one DNS record. For Microsoft 365 they then upload one file in the admin centre, which needs the Exchange Administrator or Global Administrator role, and Microsoft takes 24 to 72 hours to add the button. For Google Workspace they install Jatzo for the domain. Staff do nothing.
Check the next email that makes you pause.
For other businesses: Law firms; accountants; estate and letting agents; construction firms and architects; manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors; marketing and digital agencies; healthcare practices; insurance brokers and charities.