Criminals are actively targeting property purchases, with the aim of tricking you into transferring your house deposit and/or the balance of purchase monies to them.

These schemes can be highly sophisticated, and almost always involve the criminals pretending to be your lawyer in order to con you into sending your payment to an account they control.

Be extremely vigilant if there appears to be any change of payment details, and always double-check by calling your lawyer before you transfer your money, as emails can be intercepted or diverted.

You can test the account by sending a small sum to the account details provided and check that your lawyer has received this before transferring all of the money.

Find out more in this conveyancing fraud information leaflet here.