Property scam

PersianCatLady

G_M wrote: »

Expose of property scam on today's BBC 'Fake Britain'.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07wzts3/fake-britain-series-6-30-minute-versions-episode-6

It's not new, but is becoming more common.

* Scammers hack email addresses and monitor them
* identify when a large transaction (eg property sale) is pending, then send the buyer an email claiming to be their solicitor giving bank details
* Buyer assumes it's his solicitor, and sends money to the bank details provided
* £00,000s vanish.......

Always double check an email invoice, and always ring the solicitor to confirm bank details before sending money.

I still don't understand how people aren't more wary when they are suddenly sent an e-mail telling them to use different bank details to transfer thousands of pounds.

00ec25

has G_M written a guide on how to [STRIKE]scam[/STRIKE] avoid scams ?

will save having to endlessly repeat ourselves

G_M

00ec25 wrote: »

has G_M written a guide on how to [STRIKE]scam[/STRIKE] avoid scams ?

will save having to endlessly repeat ourselves

Deep :doh:

ed67812

still don't understand how people aren't more wary when they are suddenly sent an e-mail telling them to use different bank details to transfer thousands of pounds.

That's not what happens. The more sophisticated scams and the ones that work more often are an email intercept. Hence a real invoice for house purchase or whatever is sent by a genuine company with their real bank details. The customer is expecting this. The email is intercepted, bank details changed to the fraudster`s account, before the email carries on its journey to the unsuspecting customer. The time delay can be a matter of seconds.

nyermen

Without removing the need to triple check the bank details, reading the various stories, I still can't understand why there seems to be zero responsibility on the companies who in most cases have their emails hacked. In the guardian link, either it's an inside job or the email of the solicitors had been compromised for a period, and yet apparently it's not the solicitors problem at all.

davidmcn

nyermen wrote: »

Without removing the need to triple check the bank details, reading the various stories, I still can't understand why there seems to be zero responsibility on the companies who in most cases have their emails hacked. In the guardian link, either it's an inside job or the email of the solicitors had been compromised for a period, and yet apparently it's not the solicitors problem at all.

I think it's more likely that the recipient's account has been hacked, and the email sent is one from another source which looks like it's from the solicitors, but isn't actually from the solicitors' systems. In fact you don't necessarily need to hack their account, just know the client's email address and which firm of solicitors they're dealing with. Similar to scams where e.g. local authorities have been sent fake emails purporting to be from their suppliers giving new bank details for payment of invoices.

Obviously if there is actually negligence (or a crooked employee) at the solicitors then it ought to be their responsibility.

csgohan4

just call the firm up before you pay to confirm bank details, preferably using a number from their official website on google search and not from the email

thelem

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

My solicitors telephoned me to ask me to ring them back on their office number so I could be confident the bank details I was being given were the correct ones due to this well known scam. (It was a local solicitor whose phone number is well known in the area)

That's a sensible precaution, but even that isn't foolproof if you're using your landline. When you hang up the first call they can keep the line open, but start playing the sound of a dial tone. You pick up the phone again, hear the dial tone and dial the number from the phone book. They then make it "ring" a couple of times before answering, but in reality you're still on the same call.

G_M

We're all doomed.

DOOOMED I TELL YOU!

nyermen

We're all doomed. DOOOMED I TELL YOU!

<Best Helen Lovejoy voice> Won't someone think of the children!?! </>