Conveyancing fraud

ka7e

My solicitors were on the ball with this. In their conveyancing contract they highlighted the risk of online fraud and said no change of bank details - theirs or mine - would be notified by email. They handled all the transfers and if I wanted to change my bank details I had to attend their office with proof of ID and new bank details.

scottishblondie

To echo what others have said it is a well known scam, I'm amazed your solicitor was unaware. Our solicitor provided their bank details in a letter (in person, as I was at their office), which it clearly stated that any change to bank details we received later by any medium should be ignored. The only other means they would provide them by was over the phone, and they also offered the "£1" check to us.

It's not only solicitors that are affected by this type of scam, transactions with tradesmen are often targeted as well. A friend's parents lost around £5k after receiving an email from "their plumber" with a change of payment details after a bathroom refit. The scammer spoofed the plumber's email address so it appeared to be completely genuine.

csgohan4

So Sad, I called the conveyancer to confirm the details as these are life changing amounts and a wrong account number and you have lost your money.

Hope it works out for you

Ben1989

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm also shocked that your solicitor didn't know about this. They're either completely incompetent or embarrassed. I'd question what fraud measures they have in place. As has been said, our solicitor wouldn't accept sending of funds until we had independently called their office to confirm. There was also a fraud pack sent out to us as soon as we instructed her.

Please report back with the banks investigation conclusion. I'm very curious. Hopefully all goes well.

Blari538

Thanks again.
Will keep you posted as to the process from here.
In the meantime if anyone knows of anyone that has been refunded by the new code process, I'd be very interested to hear.

iampetesmith

This type of fraud seems to be getting more common, and hits really hard as it's your whole deposit savings gone and your house purchase depends on it.

We used a branch of Premier Property Lawyers and the Financial Statement (bill) had their bank details in the bottom corner, with a note that said these details won't change and they'll never send bank details via email. That was their effort to stop this type of fraud.

I hope you can get this sorted out as it's devastating to have to deal with it on top of all the other stress of buying a house.

SmashedAvacado

The admission from your solicitors that they were unaware of this kind of fraud is extremely useful for you. It may help you recover your money from the solicitors as they clearly did not advise you that this kind of fraud is not uncommon and law firms / solicitors are supposed to have appropriate systems for minimizing risk. I would strongly recommend that you speak to an independent solicitor (ie independent of the firm that acted for you) to see if they can make a claim against your solicitor.

diggingdude

Have a read of everything they sent you in the past. If there is nothing about sending money safely then you may stand a chance claiming against them for negligence. If you get the money back switch solicitor as if they missed this what else did they miss

davidmcn

diggingdude wrote: »

Have a read of everything they sent you in the past. If there is nothing about sending money safely then you may stand a chance claiming against them for negligence.

If it was a hack at the solicitor's end (OP, do you know this as a fact?) then they may be liable anyway.

jimbog

They should know about it:
https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/2015/further-bank-scam-warnings-april-2015/

"All firms should ensure that their own internal systems for guarding against scams are up-to-date and that staff know how to implement them."