If you’re buying your first home, fraud probably isn’t on your radar. You’re too busy chasing surveys and sorting mortgage offers. But here’s the thing. City of London Police and Action Fraud recorded 143 conveyancing fraud cases in 2025 up to March, and the total losses came to £11.7 million.
The average victim lost £78,393, which for most first-time buyers is their entire deposit, wiped out in one bank transfer. The fraud itself follows a predictable pattern, though, and the ways to stop it are surprisingly easy once you know what to look for.
How Payment Diversion Fraud Actually Works
It almost always starts with a hacked email account. A criminal gets into somebody’s inbox, could be the buyer, the seller, the estate agent, or the solicitor, and then just watches. They’ll read through messages, pick up names, note the property address, learn the expected completion date, even clock how people sign off their emails.
When the time’s right, they’ll send you an email that looks exactly like something your solicitor would send. Same email signature, same tone, and it’ll reference real details from your transaction. The only thing that’s different is the bank account number. Your money goes to the fraudster’s account instead of your solicitor’s client account, and by the time anyone notices, it’s already been moved on.
Why Completion Week Is the Danger Point
Fraudsters don’t pick their moment at random. They go after the final days before completion because that’s when big sums are moving fast and everyone’s rushing to hit a deadline.
You’ll be expecting an email with payment instructions from your solicitor, and the fraudster knows that. They also know you’ll be anxious and desperate to get the money across, so you don’t lose the property. That urgency is what makes it work. It’s the one point in the process where people are least likely to question an email, because they’ve been waiting for it all along.
Three Defences That Actually Work
Verify Bank Details by Phone
Before you transfer anything, call your solicitor and confirm the account details. Use a phone number you already have on file, one from your original engagement letter or from earlier in the process. Don’t use a number from the email you’ve just received, because if the email’s fake, the number will be too.
This one step would stop most conveyancing fraud. It takes two minutes.
Send a Small Test Payment First
Before you send your full deposit, transfer something tiny, say £1, and then ring your solicitor to check it arrived in the right place. If the details are wrong, you’ve lost a pound instead of your life savings. Most solicitors will happily check this for you, and any firm that won’t should be a red flag.
Treat Any Change of Bank Details as Fraud by Default
If you get an email saying your solicitor’s bank details have changed, treat it as fraudulent until you’ve confirmed otherwise. Legitimate solicitors almost never change their client account details mid-transaction, and they certainly wouldn’t tell you by email alone.
Don’t reply. Don’t click any links. Just pick up the phone and call the number you already have.
How a Regulated Firm Protects Client Money
Accredited panel solicitors follow strict verification procedures and won’t change account details over email. Reputable firms, like SAM Conveyancing solicitors, for example, assign a named case handler to every transaction, so you’ll always know who you’re dealing with. That’s important because if every previous message has come from the same person, an email from someone unfamiliar will stick out immediately.
CQS-accredited firms are also required to hold client funds in regulated accounts and follow the Law Society’s anti-fraud protocols, which means confirming payment instructions through secure channels and not just over email.
Your Deposit Doesn’t Have to Be at Risk
Conveyancing fraud sounds scary, but it relies almost entirely on people not checking. A two-minute phone call, a £1 test payment and a healthy dose of suspicion towards any last-minute changes to bank details will keep you safe from the vast majority of these scams.
First-time buyers are especially at risk because the whole process is new and the numbers involved can feel overwhelming. But you don’t need any special knowledge to protect yourself. You just need to slow down at the one moment when everything’s telling you to hurry up.
