Find the expensive gaps while they are still inexpensive to fix.
Is Your Business Actually Protected?
You may have cyber insurance, an IT provider, antivirus software, and backups. That still does not prove your business is protected from vendor impersonation, payment diversion, ransomware, or an insurance claim denial.
The Merchant Protection Audit examines how money, systems, people, and insurance requirements work together, then shows you exactly where your protection can fail.
For businesses receiving or paying at least $30,000 per month.
The problem
One believable email can redirect a legitimate payment
Criminals increasingly impersonate vendors, employees, executives, and trusted partners. They may change banking instructions on a real invoice, compromise a vendor's email account, impersonate someone inside your company, trick an employee into approving a payment, or exploit a gap your insurance policy requires you to close.
Changed banking instructions
Compromised vendor email
Employee impersonation
Ransomware and operational shutdown
What happens if the payment looks legitimate until the real vendor asks, “Where is our money?”
Recent warning
A $250,000 payment was redirected to criminals
In a recent pharmaceutical transaction, criminals impersonated a legitimate vendor and inserted false bank details into an existing email conversation. Approximately $250,000 was transferred to the wrong account. The money was recovered only because the fraud was discovered quickly and the companies immediately coordinated with law enforcement and their banks.
The City of Hamilton, Ontario, spent approximately $18.3 million recovering from a cyberattack. Its cyber-insurance claim was denied after required security controls had not been fully implemented.
Insurance is a contract. Protection is a process. Both must be verified before the crisis.
Origin
This service began with a real incident
Brian Austin was one of the first people contacted in a fraudulent communication that appeared to involve one of the companies he supported. Because he recognized the warning signs, he immediately contacted the company and insisted on speaking with its IT leadership. That quick intervention helped stop the situation before it created much greater damage.
That incident led to a broader realization: many businesses are not prepared to recognize, verify, or respond to a credible impersonation attempt before money or access is lost.
Merchant Protection Audit was created to help business owners identify those weaknesses before a crisis occurs.
What we do
We find the expensive gaps while they are still inexpensive to fix
The Merchant Protection Audit examines the complete chain protecting your money, including your people, email, devices, financial permissions, payment procedures, backups, insurance obligations, documentation, and incident response.
01
Email and identity security
How your email accounts and identities are protected and monitored.
02
Employee access and permissions
Who can reach which systems, and what happens when roles change.
03
Vendor onboarding and payment changes
How a new vendor or a changed bank account gets accepted.
04
Banking and payment approvals
The approval chain that stands between a request and a transfer.
05
Devices and network protection
The computers, phones, and network your money passes through.
06
Backups and recovery
Whether you could actually recover, and how long it would take.
07
Employee fraud awareness
Whether your people can recognize and stop a believable request.
08
Cyber-insurance requirements
The controls your policy assumes you already have in place.
09
Incident-response readiness
What happens in the first hour after something goes wrong.
10
Documentation and evidence
Proof that safeguards exist and are maintained over time.
Deliverables
What you receive
- Pass/fail findings
- Priority risk summary
- Estimated exposure areas
- Insurance-readiness observations
- Immediate protective actions
- Prioritized corrective-action plan
- Optional implementation proposal
Who we serve
This is for businesses that move meaningful money
- Receive or pay at least $30,000 per month
- Pay vendors electronically
- Have multiple employees or financial users
- Depend on email for invoices and approvals
- Operate multiple locations or legal entities
- Store valuable customer or company information
- Carry cyber insurance or assume they are protected
- Cannot afford to lose a major payment or shut down operations
Why trust us
Why should you trust us with this?
Merchant Protection Audit was created by Make Your Money Multiply, LLC, in collaboration with Brian Austin and TheStation.com, subject to final approval of company descriptions, credentials, and service claims.
Make Your Money Multiply helps business owners become more profitable, efficient, and valuable. That work led to an obvious question: as a business becomes more successful and moves more money, how does it protect that money from criminals, mistakes, and preventable system failures?
Brian Austin brings systems-architecture and enterprise technology experience through TheStation.com, a company that publicly describes its work as including systems integration, workflow engineering, security solutions, installation, and technical support.
Together, we combine business-owner perspective with technical systems expertise to help identify where a merchant's money, people, processes, technology, and insurance requirements may not be working together.
We are not claiming that any audit can prevent every attack or guarantee an insurance payment. Our job is to help you discover the gaps, prioritize the corrections, and create evidence that important safeguards are being addressed and maintained.
Process
A simple four-step process
- 1
Apply
Answer a few questions about your business, systems, payments, and exposure.
- 2
Scope
We confirm the appropriate audit level and price.
- 3
Audit
We review the agreed areas, interview responsible people, and examine available documentation.
- 4
Decide
You receive your report and may correct the findings independently or ask us to help implement and maintain the protection.
Pricing
Audits start at $2,500
Your exact price depends on the size and complexity of your business. Payment volume, users, locations, entities, financial systems, customer-data exposure, and insurance requirements all affect the scope.
Merchant Protection Review
Starting at $2,500
A focused review for smaller operations with a single entity and a straightforward payment process.
Most requested
Merchant Protection Audit
Starting at $5,000
The full audit across all ten areas, including interviews and documentation review.
Complex or Enterprise Audit
Custom scope
For multiple entities, multiple locations, several banking platforms, or elevated data exposure.
- Three-year protection agreement: 50% audit credit toward eligible implementation services.
- Five-year protection agreement: 100% audit credit toward eligible implementation services.
- Credits apply to eligible services and are not cash-refundable.
Find out before the money disappears
A $2,500 or $5,000 audit may feel expensive. It feels very different when compared with a $250,000 vendor payment sent to criminals, weeks of operational disruption, a ransomware recovery bill, or an insurance claim denied because a required control was missing.
You do not need to guess whether your business is protected. You can test it.