Friday Afternoon Fraud - Cyber Fraud - Property Completion

eyaf

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

theartfullodger

Police & actionfraud....


https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/


Why wait 3 months before asking ?

Comms69

Surely you contact the SRA?


You have emails proving all of this presumably.

agrinnall

Why do you think your solicitor's systems were compromised? It's much more likely that the fraudsters simply spoofed your solicitor's email adress, that's how this type of fraud normall works, and if that is what happened then your solicitor is correct that it is not their responsibility.

kingstreet

eyaf wrote: »

I called and spoke to my solicitor about the change or bank details

Please elaborate on this.

kingstreet

Our standard warning;-

Important Warning: Please be aware of cybercrime. Do not respond to emails asking you to pay money. Never make a payment purely in response to an email. Always call the company to validate any payment requests and check the phone number independently from the email (i.e. via a secure web site). If you receive a phone call
asking for payment ensure you are satisfied the call is genuine, or else call the company back to check. Please note we will not take responsibility if you transfer money to a fraudster in error.

TBagpuss

As Kingstreet says, most solicitors are aware of the risk and have systems in place - normally this would involve them having a warning (My solicitors has it in the footer or their e-mails and it is also spelled out in the letter they send when you first instruct them, and their bank details are provided in hard copy not via e-mail)

If they warned you and you then fell for the scam then unfortunately , they are not liable, any more than they would be liable if you had been mugged and had your wallet stolen while walking to their office.

Even if they didn't warn you, hen there's not reason to assume that they would be liable, although you might be able to raise a complaint to say they ought to have made you aware of the risk.

If you had proof that it was the solicitors system which was compromised then the position might be different, but even then i think you would have to show that they had been negligent; if they had appropriate checks and security systems but were still hacked they are as much a victim as you.

AdrianC

This is, unfortunately, a common scam - and it's been widely publicised for several years now.

2015 -
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/11605010/Fraudsters-hacked-emails-to-my-solicitor-and-stole-340000-from-my-property-sale.html

https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/cyber-crime-and-fraud-in-property-transactions-can-you-recover-from-your-solicitor

2016 -
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/alert/fraudsters-hacking-into-emails-to-divert-house-purchase-payments

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/property-sellers-warned-not-to-email-solicitors-we-lost-204000/

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3595638/Solicitors-warn-home-buyers-send-details-post-not-email-avoid-new-scam-sees-hackers-steal-vast-amounts-money.html

...and lots before, around the same time, and since.

The SRA has this to say...
http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct/guidance/case-study/cybercrime.page

societys_child

The op has been deleted . .


Were the answers were not what he wanted to hear? I never had time to read it.

davidmcn

societys_child wrote: »

The op has been deleted . .


Were the answers were not what he wanted to hear? I never had time to read it.

Short story - they sent money to fraudster's account, believe it to be because their solicitors' systems had been compromised, and haven't got their money back yet.

DoaM

It wasn't there long enough for Google Cache or the Wayback Machine to archive it.