Email scam - request to act in conveyancing transaction

23/11/2017 16:36:00

The Society has been made aware of a scam email received by members of the profession, requesting that the solicitor act in a conveyancing transaction (copy below - the solicitors name has been amended for anonymity reasons).

This email requests the solicitor to act in a conveyancing matter. The solicitor responded to the request, asking for a contact phone number. The 鈥減otential client鈥 then emailed an attachment to the solicitor. If opened, this attachment is likely to result in malware being installed onto the computer. 

The profession is advised that they should always review the sender鈥檚 details before acting on any email. In this case, it would be noticed that the 鈥減otential client鈥 sends the email to herself and the solicitor must have been 鈥渂cc鈥檈d鈥 on the email. This should immediately raise concerns as to the veracity of the email. Where such concerns arise the profession are advised to contact the purported sender by a secure means, for example, phonecall or post, before acting on the email. You will note that the solicitor was attempting to obtain a contact number in this case so that they could speak to the 鈥減otential client鈥 directly.

Although the solicitor said in the email exchange with the 'client' that they were unable to open the attachment, the solicitor confirmed to the Law Society that he had not actually attempted to do so and wanted to make contact first.

Contact details were not forthcoming, raising the solicitors concerns, leading to the matter being reported to the Law Society.

From: Solicitor
Sent: 23 November 2017 15:30
To: 'Fenella Wilson' <fenella.wilson@armamarne.com>
Subject: RE: PROPERTY FOR SALE: Shrewsbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Hi Fenella,

Hope you are well. Unfortunately, I was not able to open the attachment again. If you just send me your phone number I will contact you and we can discuss this matter over the phone.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Solicitor

From: Fenella Wilson [mailto:fenella.wilson@armamarne.com]
Sent: 23 November 2017 15:24
To: Solicitor
Subject: Re: PROPERTY FOR SALE: Shrewsbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

My apologies, I sent you the wrong email in error. The pdf is secured, and you will be required to sign in with this email, which has been registered in order for you to view the documents.

Fenella