False billing
the fraudulent act of sending a false invoice to someone in the hopes that they will pay it
False billing, also known as fraudulent billing or billing fraud, is a fraudulent act of invoicing or otherwise requesting funds from an individual or firm without showing obligation to pay. This could be fraudulent billing for part of the work done (over-billing with the intent to defraud), or that no work was done at all.
Such notices are, for example, sent to owners of domain names, goods and/ or services not provided, or purporting to be legitimate renewal notices, although not originating from the owner's own registrar. Other examples are overbilling and fraudulently adding fake fees and taxes (see below).
Attorney bills
According to the American Bar Association rules governing lawyer's ethics, a false bill, invoice, or statement, this would be a misrepresentation that could result in sanctions. An attorney has a fiduciary duty under Rule 1.1 to their client of competent representation, and competence with billing is part of that. The lawyer has a specific duty under Rule 1.4 (b) to explain matters in order for them to make needed and informed choices about their lawyer's work. There are many more specific requirements under ABA Rule 1.5, Fees, for example, the bill must be "reasonable", which has been defined in great detail since 2014.
If a false bill is sent to a third party to pay, it would violate Rule 4.1, "Truthfulness In Statements To Others ... Misrepresentation."
False billing has become a serious problem, according to the ABA Journal, whereby big law firms allegedly overbill clients.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “False billing” as the fraudulent act of sending a false invoice to someone in the hopes that they will pay it. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as the fraudulent act of sending a false invoice to someone in the hopes that they will pay it. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5432684. The first chronological checks are 2014.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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This entry incorporates text from “False billing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.