# How We Verify Clients and Handle Payments

> How Koombea verifies new clients and handles payments, and how to protect your company from impersonation and payment fraud.

Source: https://www.koombea.com/payment-security/

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Fraudsters target software companies with fake projects, fake checks, and fake
payment instructions. These rules protect our clients and us. They apply to
every engagement, without exceptions.

## Before we start

**We contract with registered companies.** Before we send a proposal, we ask
for the legal name of the contracting company, where it is registered, and its
website or business email domain. We confirm the registration in the public
registry.

**Business communication stays on business channels.** Agreements, approvals,
and payment questions must come from your company email domain. We do not
accept them from personal email accounts.

**We work directly with your authorized signatory.** We do not route
contracts, funds, or documents through intermediaries, agents, or third-party
contacts.

**We do not open unsolicited links or files.** Until we sign an agreement or
NDA, we do not open payment portals, file links, or attachments. You can share
reference material once we both sign the NDA.

## How payments work

**Signed agreement first.** We issue invoices and payment instructions only
after both parties sign the Master Services Agreement and Statement of Work.

**Wire or ACH only.** We accept payment by bank wire or ACH transfer. We do not
accept checks, cashier's checks, money orders, cryptocurrency, or payment apps.

**Payments come from the contracting company.** Funds must come from an
account held by the company that signed the agreement. We do not accept
payments from investors, affiliates, or other third parties on your behalf.

**We never move funds to third parties.** We do not forward, refund, or
transfer client funds to anyone at a client's request. That includes vendors,
consultants, designers, and equipment suppliers.

**No overpayment refunds.** We invoice exact amounts. If we receive more than
the invoice, we return the full payment to the originating account after it
clears. Then we invoice again.

**Work starts when funds clear.** We schedule the project after the initial
payment clears into our account.

## Protect yourself from impersonation

**We never change payment instructions by email.** Not by text or chat either.
If instructions you receive look different from your invoice, assume they are
fraudulent.

**Confirm by phone before your first payment.** Call our finance team at
<a href="tel:+18888403252">+1-888-840-3252</a>. Use the number on this page,
not a number from an email.

**Our team writes from koombea.com addresses.** Messages from other domains
that claim to be Koombea are not from us.

**We have two offices.** Naples, Florida and Barranquilla, Colombia. Anyone
claiming another Koombea office is not from us.

## Report a suspicious message

If someone claiming to be Koombea asks you for payment, credentials, or
personal information, forward the message to
<a href="mailto:contact@koombea.com">contact@koombea.com</a>. We review every
report.