Payment Diversion Fraud – A note to our clients
On these occasions a client is contacted by telephone and the fraudster is able to change the caller ID of the call to try and legitimise the call, by it appearing to come from the solicitor. We are advised that clients have then been asked to transfer monies to an alternative bank account, which later appears to be the account of the fraudster.
We at Rogers & Norton take our responsibilities to protect our clients’ monies seriously and for these reasons indicate at the outset and throughout a transaction that our client account bank details. As such, any client who is contacted by email or telephone and requested to send monies to a bank account other than our client bank account details provided, should be highly suspicious of the communication received and report this to us.
Here is a link to the National Economic Crime Centre and Law Society latest leaflet explaining the current spate of payment diversion fraud and providing helpful recommendations to ensure clients’ monies are protected.
We would advise all clients transferring monies to Rogers & Norton to ensure that they are transferring these monies to the client account details which we have provided.
It is very unlikely that our client account details will ever change during the conduct of a transaction and we would not communicate such change by email or telephone. Any client suspicious of a request for payment is strongly advised to verify the request for payment with the solicitor handling their matter at Rogers & Norton on a verified and known phone number for the practice. Our main switchboard number is 01603 666001.
We will always be happy to verify our bank details with a client or a fellow professional if they call us to do so. For our clients protection, we always verify the bank details of the recipients of outgoing payments.
Whilst we already have robust procedures and systems in place to protect our clients’ monies, we trust our clients and fellow professionals will appreciate the need for caution given the further guidance provided by The Law Society.