13 June 2018
Law Society warns of the need to be vigilant against scammers
The Law Society of Northern Ireland has warned that those involved in conveyancing transactions should always 'check and double check' to avoid being scammed.
The warning follows an increase in reports to the Society regarding cyber-crime attacks on solicitor firms and clients many of which have become victims of identity theft, mail forwarding Trojans, false emails and hijacking of desktops by scammers.
Reports have indicated that in many instances those targeted were found to be using FREE email addresses which use shared servers.
Scammers who access the FREE email accounts then monitor and intercept email communications particularly those which are of a financial nature such as conveyancing transactions.
To date the scammers have been largely thwarted in their attempts but the Law Society remains concerned that some may not be putting in place the simple 'check and double check' steps to avoid scammers succeeding.
Commenting the President of the Law Society, Eileen Ewing said;
“Our message is if you are involved in a conveyancing transaction you should always 'check and double check' that the information being sent to you is correct and that it is not being sent by a scammer.
Most importantly it is recommended that you never send your bank account details by email.
Given the amounts of money involved in conveyancing transactions it makes sense to always 'check and double check' with the parties involved directly other than by email”.