Fraud

Mmode

I received cloned emails from my solicitor requesting funds for purchase of my house. Am now very anxious. The law firm is reputable however the fear of almost being conned out of my money leads me to think maybe  I should simply change lawyers . Please advise 

pinkteapot

I wouldn't switch. You realised the attempted fraud and are safe. It's fine, though I can understand feeling unnerved. Just deal with your solicitor by phone and when you get to the point of needing to transfer money, phone them to re-confirm their account details. 

user1977

Doesn't exactly seem a great money-saving choice to make, given all the fees you'd be duplicating and time you'd be wasting. The main thing is you haven't actually been conned.

AdrianC

Has the scam mail arrived because of a breach of the solicitor's IT security? Or because of a breach of yours?

hippocrates1

Always send £1 to your solicitor then call and check they have received the money before transferring the full amount

SaintJudy

I went into the solicitor's office and asked them to print out their bank details because I was worried about this too

NameUnavailable

Mmode said:

I received cloned emails from my solicitor requesting funds for purchase of my house. Am now very anxious. The law firm is reputable however the fear of almost being conned out of my money leads me to think maybe  I should simply change lawyers . Please advise 

No, send the email to the solicitors so they can investigate their end, and ask them to confirm their bank details to you - then double check them (by phoning if they email you the info). Also as above send £1 first to confirm all is in order.

It's not unknown for a dishonest employee to provide false detials also, hence the need to triple check!

Mutton_Geoff

When you signed the client care letter to instruct your solicitor, it should have contained their bank details with a side note saying to ignore emails asking you to pay into any other account. Did the fraudulent email direct you to pay into another account? Action Fraud would be interested as with the account details they can go some way to tracking them down or at least closing the account.

To think of changing firms is a knee jerk reaction.

steampowered

Could these cloned emails have been due to a breach of your security - i.e. a hacker gaining access to your email, and cloning emails from there?

If so, make sure you change your passwords.

Most conveyancers will send you their bank details at the start of the transaction with a note that they won't change.