Jonathan Bennett
For most people, buying a home is one of the biggest financial transactions they will ever make. For criminals, that makes the conveyancing process an attractive target.
A recent warning reported in the Guardian last week has once again brought attention to a type of fraud commonly known as ‘Friday afternoon fraud’, where criminals intercept or imitate communications between buyers, sellers, solicitors and estate agents before redirecting substantial payments to accounts they control.
The timing is significant. Property transactions often reach a critical point towards the end of the week, with large sums due to move shortly before completion. For a fraudster who has been monitoring a transaction, that creates a valuable opportunity.
According to figures reported by Report Fraud, there were 3,657 reports of scams involving people being persuaded to make payments into the wrong bank account during the 2025-26 financial year, with reported losses totalling £101 million. Conveyancing fraud forms part of this wider category. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, Report Fraud recorded 140 property-related cases, with an average reported loss of £78,393.
The figures underline the scale of the problem, but they also show why conveyancing remains such an attractive target. A single successful attack can result in a six-figure loss.
How does Friday afternoon fraud work?
The basic premise is relatively simple.
A criminal gains access to, or otherwise monitors, communications relating to a property transaction. They then wait until they know a payment is due and send an email that appears to come from the solicitor or estate agent.
The message may contain genuine details about the transaction and ask the buyer to transfer money to a new account. Because the recipient is expecting to make a payment, the request can initially appear entirely legitimate.
In some cases, the fraudster uses a spoofed email address. In more sophisticated attacks, a genuine email account may have been compromised, meaning the communication can appear to come from the legitimate firm.
That makes relying on the appearance of an email increasingly risky.
A message can look right, arrive at the right time and contain information that is accurate, yet still be fraudulent.
The human element
Technology has made conveyancing faster and more connected, but it has also created more opportunities for criminals to exploit communications.
The response cannot therefore sit entirely with the buyer. Everyone involved in the transaction has a role to play.
For law firms, this means having clear processes around client verification, communication and payment instructions. Staff need to know what to look for and, importantly, what to do when something does not look right.
For clients, the message is equally straightforward. Bank details should always be verified independently before a payment is made, particularly where an email suggests that account details have changed or that a payment needs to be made urgently.
The safest approach is to use a trusted contact route that has already been established, rather than relying on the telephone number or link included in a suspicious message.
Banks are also introducing additional checks around the name of the recipient account, giving customers another opportunity to stop a payment where something does not match their expectations. These warnings should be treated as a reason to pause and investigate, rather than simply clicking through.
Identity has a bigger role to play
This is where the issue becomes more complicated for law firms. Verifying a client when they first instruct a firm is an important part of the process, but it does not tell you who is sending an email six weeks later.
A genuine client can be properly identified at the start of a transaction and their email account can still be compromised later. A solicitor can verify a buyer’s identity and still receive a fraudulent instruction from someone who has gained access to the buyer’s communications. The same applies in the other direction. A fraudster can monitor a legitimate conversation and step into it at exactly the point when money is due to move.
That means identity needs to be considered throughout the transaction, alongside the security of the communication channels being used. The question is not simply whether a client was verified at the beginning. It is whether the firm has a reliable way of establishing that the person giving an instruction is the person they appear to be when that instruction matters.
This becomes particularly important as the government continues to push towards a more digital property market. Its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, published in June, puts digitalisation at the centre of plans to make transactions faster and reduce delays. It also highlights the importance of trusted information being shared securely between property professionals.
More property information is going to be shared digitally, more processes are going to move online and technology will play a greater role in connecting the different parties involved in a transaction.
That creates an opportunity to build stronger controls around identity and communication at the same time.
Digital identity can help firms establish that a client is who they say they are and create a stronger foundation for secure digital interactions. Used alongside clear procedures for confirming payment instructions, strong email security, multi-factor authentication and staff training, it can form part of a much wider approach to reducing the opportunities available to fraudsters.
The important point is that no single check can carry the whole burden. Identity verification at onboarding is one layer, secure communications are another. Independent verification of payment instructions is another. Together, those layers make it harder for a criminal to impersonate someone or manipulate a transaction at the point where the stakes are highest.
Preparing for a more digital conveyancing process
The property industry is already moving in this direction.
The government’s reform programme includes greater use of digital property information, with the aim of allowing trusted information to be shared more efficiently between professionals. HM Land Registry is also exploring how property data can be made available earlier in the transaction process to support faster decision-making and reduce fall-throughs.
For conveyancers, the challenge will be making sure that security keeps pace with this digital transformation.
Speed and convenience are valuable, but they cannot come at the expense of trust. A transaction that moves quickly but leaves room for uncertainty around identity, instructions or payment details creates its own risks.
The firms best placed to navigate this change will be those that consider security from the beginning of the client journey, rather than treating it as a final check before completion.
Friday afternoon fraud is a useful reminder of why that matters. Criminals are paying attention to the property transaction, understanding how it works and looking for the moments where large sums of money change hands.
The legal sector needs to be just as focused on where the vulnerabilities sit.
As conveyancing becomes more digital, establishing trust in the people, information and instructions involved in a transaction will become increasingly important. Identity is a key part of that process, and getting it right early can help firms build a more secure transaction from the outset.