Cyber-crime has been discussed an increasing amount in the industry press. In the last few weeks there was a story which involved two home buyers’ whose emails were hacked, and their £45,000 deposit stolen by fraudsters.
In this particular case, the hackers impersonated the solicitor and sent an email to the couple requesting funds to be paid into a different account from the original bank the solicitors had provided them with.
Suppliers on the SortRefer panel regularly review their security protocols and all adhere to the highest industry standards in all aspects of the business, however a potential security breach is far more likely to occur on the client side than that of the solicitor.
The key message for your clients is to remain vigilant when transferring large amounts of money. A Law firm will never change their bank details, so if any of your clients receive a message to the contrary, they should make contact with their case handler immediately to check the validity.
If we can spread this message across the industry, and to our clients alike, future incidents of this kind can be avoided.