Report from Irish solicitor - Munster

18/10/2017 16:04:00

A Munster firm was subject to an e-mail spoofing attempt in October 2017.

Date discovered: October 2017

Type: Email spoofing

Region: Munster

Description: In the course of the closing of a sale the solicitor acting for the purchaser received the vendor’s solicitor’s client account details by way of a PDF attachment to an email. The solicitor, having confirmed the veracity of the client account details with the vendor’s solicitor by phone, forwarded the email to the bookkeeper and confirmed that the account details had been verified. It was this internal email that was intercepted and substitute account details furnished. The payment was made to these amended bank details. Approximately 1½ weeks later the vendor solicitor notified them that the funds had not reached the intended recipient.

Client money stolen?: ³Û±ð²õ,&²Ô²ú²õ±è;€166,500

Able to quantify cost of attack to practice?&²Ô²ú²õ±è;€166,500

Informed relevant authorities eg bank, police, insurers, Law Society? Yes