About Stingray Security
Where it started
Once a month, the Law Society sends out a notice listing the latest payment fraud losses by law firms.
Some cost millions of dollars.
Every month, the same story with different names. A fraudster intercepts e-mailed payment instructions, and a well-meaning professional sends payment to the criminal instead of the actual payee.
Every month, the same advice. Pick up the phone and read the account number out loud. That advice hasn't changed in decades, because no reliable tech solution has actually helped.
But that advice hasn't stopped payment fraud.
So we started asking the people involved in payments: firms, finance teams, advisors. All had the same problems, none had a real answer.
- Phone verification is slow, but deal timing requires faster movement.
- Phone verification is easy to skip, especially if the first call doesn't connect.
- Mandatory security awareness training hasn't helped.
- A.I. spoofing of actual voices is a real fear.
Introducing Verify portals: an instant, safe, and secure way to verify payment details. Stop payment fraud in its tracks.
The founders
The people behind Stingray
Ian MacKinnon
Co-founder
Ian previously co-founded Later, which started at a 2014 hackathon and became the leading marketing platform for Instagram with over 6 million brands and agencies before its 2022 acquisition.
Before that, Ian was a founder or early employee at several Vancouver technology companies. He holds a bachelor's and master's in computer science, a master's in management science & engineering, and is a CISSP-certified security professional.
Andrew Dilts
Co-founder
Andrew is an attorney who has run more than $1B in international M&A transactions as a partner at a major law firm. He spent his career on transactions where a single swapped wire account number could lead to disastrous results for client and firm alike.
He brings the professional-obligation view of the problem: what a firm owes its clients, what regulators expect, and why “call to confirm” is a practice needing improvement.
Recognition
Winner, ScamShield Investor Protection Challenge
Awarded by the Alberta Securities Commission for work on preventing the next generation of online scams and fraud.