Can I cancel a wire after I have sent it?

How must the cancellation reach the bank?

So call, and use the way of confirming instructions your bank agreed with you.

A communication of the sender of a payment order cancelling or amending the order may be transmitted to the receiving bank orally, electronically, or in writing.

If a security procedure is in effect between the sender and the receiving bank, the communication is not effective to cancel or amend the order unless the communication is verified pursuant to the security procedure or the bank agrees to the cancellation or amendment.

What if the bank has already accepted it?

The section then lists three mistakes: a duplicate order, payment to a beneficiary not entitled to it, and payment of too much.

Whether a payment made on forged instructions fits one of those cases is a question for your bank and your lawyer. This page does not answer it.

After a payment order has been accepted, cancellation or amendment of the order is not effective unless the receiving bank agrees or a funds-transfer system rule allows cancellation or amendment without agreement of the bank.

With respect to a payment order accepted by the beneficiary's bank, cancellation or amendment is not effective unless the order was issued in execution of an unauthorized payment order, or because of a mistake by a sender in the funds transfer

What can an outside reading tell you after a payment fraud?

An outside reading cannot see your mailboxes, so it cannot tell you whether someone signed in to one.

It can show three things that bear on how a fraud like this reaches a firm: whether your DMARC record tells mail servers to refuse mail forged in your name, which look-alike domains of yours are registered, and which addresses at your domain are listed in breach data from other services.

Where do I go next?

• Regulation E and business wires
• The first hour, United States