Blog Post

Conveyancing Fraud

O EVANS • 22 March 2018

There has been a recent decision in a case known as Dreamvar where a fake vendor purported to sell a property with a value in excess of £1,000,000 through solicitors. The vendor’s solicitors did the standard checks which whilst on the face of it were sufficient for their purposes at close sight would have been considered suspicious. The vendor produced a recent driving licence and fake documentation.

The purchaser, represented by solicitors, handed over purchase monies on a quick sale which were distributed to the fake vendor.

The point is that in today’s world we have significant cyber fraud but also solicitors have to contend with not only fake vendors but also fake solicitors.

It has to be said that fraudulent clients are more likely to be prevalent in London and major cities in the UK rather than the West Country.

At Almy & Thomas we are on high alert as to scam emails and enquiries that amount to cyber crime and we are extremely vigilant and have significant defences to fake vendors and fake solicitors.

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