Conveyancing fraud - victim loses £50,000

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/fraudsters-stole-50000-from-me-last-year---why-will-no-one-help/?

Along with 'invoice fraud' this is a new boom area for scammers and the pickings for them are potentially greater than any other type of fraud.

1 MAY 2016

Fraudsters stole £50,000 from me last year - why will no one help?

Ms Gabb, 59, lost almost £50,000 in June 2015 while trying to purchase a buy-to-let property in Colchester.

Fraudsters posing as her solicitor, Chris Smee from the north London branch of Barnes & Partners, sent her an email informing her of a change in its bank details. It requested that she pay the money into the new account ahead of the transaction.

Ms Gabb transferred £46,703 on the first Friday in June. By Tuesday she discovered that she had paid the money straight into the criminals' hands.

Aside from either party's email accounts being hacked it's possible that anyone involved in the transaction, from banks and estate agents to the contacts of the buyer and seller themselves, could divulge enough information to enable a scammer to know enough to issue amended payment instructions. The chances of anyone who is a victim of this type of fraud getting their money back is remote.

My own personal opinion is that British banks have to tighten up account opening procedures because currently it is far too easy for scammers to open up bank accounts to use in fraud. Once upon a time it was only high end crooks who could get involved in this type of fraud but nowadays it has become en entry level scam with greater and greater rewards and, with the potential to wipe out companies and peoples' wealth, it has to be addressed.

Ironically

http://www.bestadvice.co.uk/invoice-fraud-hitting-financial-services-hard/?

April 27, 2016

Invoice fraud hitting financial services hard

New research from Tungsten Businesses has suggested that financial services firms are losing more than £165 million in invoice fraud every year.

Concern about the scale of the fraud is greater in the financial services industry than other sectors with 61% perceiving it to be the single biggest threat facing their business – more so than losing a major contract, a member of staff or competitor activities

The problem is that financial organisations have weak systems for handling financial transactions that are easily penetrated by even low level crooks.

In any significant transaction I would write to anyone I am dealing with to make clear that any amendment to payment instructions will only be accepted in writing and confirmed by telephone call the way things are at present.

Another variation on the invoice fraud where someone impersonates a company director to make a fraudulent payment.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/faversham/news/email-scam-cost-boss-20k-95082/?

01 May 2016

A company director is warning other bosses about an email scam which cost his business almost £20,000.

It happened while he was in America, which he believes the scammers may have known.

“It works by the scammers getting hold of and mirroring the chief executive or managing director’s email address and details.

“They send out an urgent message, from the boss to the accounts department, saying a payment must be made into another account immediately.

“They work on the hope that staff will blindly follow the boss’s instruction and not query it.

“In this case, our accounts clerk did question the second request but got an email straight back which appeared quite personal to her, saying ‘just do it’ and that I would sort the paperwork later.

Interestingly the victims adds.

“I personally hold the banks responsible to a high degree. It is supposed to be very difficult to open a bogus current account, so how is it possible that these fraudsters do it with ease and with such regularity?

“It makes a nonsense of the systems in place to prevent such things. They must see these accounts opened and closed within days, with big sums transacted in and out to foreign accounts.”

There is no such thing as a perfectly secure system, and in that I include more than just the computer system but also the manner in which that system is used, but banks and account holders are both using accounts in a manner that invites fraud with worrying potential to harm whole economies.

There is also a news report of a Scottish company losing £18m in the same manner but, as the details are so vague, I see no point linking to it here.