Frauds that use emails to trick company employees into making unwarranted payments are proliferating, underscoring the importance of businesses' having procedures in place that not only guard against such frauds but allow them to respond effectively if frauds occur.

Last month, the FBI warned of a "dramatic rise" in the frauds, known as business email compromise (BEC) scams, after previously issuing warnings last August and January. And the Association for Financial Professionals' 2016 survey on payment frauds and controls found that 64% of the more than 600 treasury and finance practitioners surveyed had experienced actual or attempted BEC scams in 2015.

The survey noted an increase in fraud overall, with 73% of respondents having experienced fraud or attempted fraud last year, up from 62% in 2014. And there was a sharp increase in wire transfer frauds, which could be linked to the BEC scams, with 48% of respondents saying they experienced wire transfer fraud in 2015, up from 27% in 2014 and 14% in 2013.