Payment redirection is one of the risks worth understanding before you are anywhere near transferring money. Protecting yourself involves both good provider processes and a few simple habits on your part. It generally turns on a single moment: money sent to an account nobody independently checked.
Why property is a target
Property transactions are attractive targets for a few structural reasons.
The sums are large, so one success pays for a great deal of effort. The dates are known well in advance, sometimes weeks ahead, so an impersonator knows exactly when you will be expecting a payment request. And there is a constant stream of email between you, your agent, your broker, your lender and your conveyancer, which means an extra message from a familiar-looking address does not stand out at all.
How it usually works
The common version is an email that appears to come from your conveyancer or your agent, arriving close to when a payment is due, explaining that their bank details have changed and giving you a new account.
Sometimes the sending address is a near-perfect copy of the real one, different by a single character. Sometimes the scammer has been quietly reading a compromised mailbox for weeks and knows precisely what stage your matter is at, which is why the message can reference real details and sound entirely normal. If you transfer the money without independently checking the details, recovering it can be difficult.
Simple habits that protect you
- Verify by phone, on a number you already have. Not the number in the email. Use the one from their website or your earlier conversations, and confirm the account details out loud.
- Treat any change of bank details as a reason to stop and verify independently. Do not rely on the message itself, however routine it looks.
- Check the account name matches the person or organisation you expect to pay. This is another check, not a substitute for independently confirming the bank details.
- Do not let urgency rush you. Pressure to pay immediately is a tactic, not a deadline. Do not transfer anything until you have independently confirmed the account details, no matter how tight the timing feels.
What a good conveyancer does about it
You should not be carrying this alone. A conveyancer who takes it seriously should explain how payment details are provided, how any genuine change would be communicated, warn you about impersonation well before you are close to paying, and make independent verification easy rather than awkward.
If none of that has been mentioned to you, ask. Their answer should give you a better sense of the safeguards they have in place and what they expect you to do before making a payment.
If something feels wrong
Stop, and do not transfer. Call your conveyancer on a number you already have. If money has already gone, contact your bank immediately, because acting quickly may improve the chance of recovering the funds.
There is no cost to pausing and checking. The consequences of getting it wrong can be significant.
General information only, not legal advice.
