Conveyancing Association to publish Cyber Security Protocol as police warn on criminals targeting phones for bank details

Conveyancing Association to publish Cyber Security Protocol as police warn on criminals targeting phones for bank details

The Conveyancing Association (CA) is to publish it’s own cyber security protocol to help conveyancers deal with the ever increasing threat from cyber criminals.

The announcement comes as Police warn scammers are targeting customers and obtaining bank details through sophisticated call recording vishing scams.

According to Action Fraud, fraudsters contact people with a text, letter or email purporting to be from their bank, which requests that the victims contact them on a telephone number provided.

The victim phones the number provided, with the scammer redirecting the number to the genuine bank and recording the call, allowing the criminal to note all the victim’s security answers and personal details.

The criminals then phone the bank at a later date and exploit the genuine credentials and security information gained to request a range of payments to be made from the account/s.

The reason why this scam is so successful is because the fraudster’s presence is unknown to both the victim and the bank. In one report made to Action Fraud a victim was contacted directly by the scammers purporting to be the bank to request further details so that validation could be gained for further transactions.

Eddie Goldsmith, Chairman of the Conveyancing Association, said: “If ever there was a CA meeting which highlighted the real risk to our members, and indeed, all businesses from the cyber-fraudsters then it was this one. We were incredibly lucky to have Richard attend and he gave us a fascinating insight into the wider cyber-crime picture, the work that is going on at Government level and the efforts all firms need to make when it comes to protecting both themselves and their clients.

“I’m sure it was a real eye-opener for all attendees and should certainly have sent them back to their firms with a renewed focus on how they can make their businesses much more cyber-crime averse. To this end, we will be issuing our Protocol next month, which is another benefit of CA membership, and will offer a best practice guide in this area.

“Our MCM and AMM meetings have certainly gone up a level this year as we seek to add more content for attendees and to provide our Affiliate members with a platform to get in front of our members. Our latest meeting provided a run-down of the progress we are making across a growing number of fronts, plus we had the wonderful opportunity to socialise after with a trip on the London Eye, followed by dinner. We believe the social aspect of CA membership is incredibly important and each MCM, AMM and our forthcoming AGM will also offer attendees a chance to network and get to know each other.”

Josh Morris

Josh is the Journalist for the Today's Group and writes many of the articles for Today's Conveyancer. He graduated with a degree in Physics from Cardiff University in 2009 before training as a journalist. He has previously written for The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Express.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *