The email saying your solicitor's bank details have changed
If you are mid-purchase and an email arrives saying the firm's account has changed, stop. This is the single most common sign of payment diversion fraud, and the sums lost in conveyancing are often life-changing. Nothing on this page takes more than a phone call.
Why this email is almost never genuine
Law firms know this fraud exists, so they avoid changing client account details mid-transaction, and many state in their first letter that they never will. The criminals, meanwhile, send exactly this message, because it works. The typical pattern:
- An email account somewhere in the chain (yours, the firm's, an agent's) has been compromised, and the criminal has been reading quietly for weeks.
- Close to exchange or completion, when a large payment is expected, a message arrives that reads like the next email in the thread.
- It says the firm's bank details have changed, or gives "updated" details for the deposit or completion money.
- The sender address is the real one (if the firm's mailbox is compromised) or a near-copy: an extra letter, a .com instead of .co.uk, a hyphen that was never there.
Everything else in the email can be accurate: your name, the property, the amounts, the case reference. Accuracy is not proof, because the criminal read it all in the same thread you did.
Before you pay: one phone call
Phone the firm and ask them to confirm the account details, using a number you obtained independently of the email:
- The number on the firm's entry in the SRA register (you can look the firm up here by name, trading name, SRA number or website address, free).
- The number on paperwork from the start of the transaction.
- Never the number in the email or its signature: if the message is fraudulent, that number rings the criminal, who will cheerfully confirm the details.
Read the account name, sort code and account number to the person on the phone and have them confirm each one. Many firms also suggest sending 1 pound first and phoning to confirm it arrived before sending the balance. A genuine firm will not be offended by any of this; solicitors deal with this fraud constantly and would far rather take your call.
If you have already paid: the first hours matter
Act in this order, and do not wait for business hours:
- Call your bank now. Use the fraud line or dial 159, the anti-fraud hotline that connects you to your bank if it participates (most major UK banks do). Say you have made an authorised push payment to a fraudster. Banks can sometimes freeze funds in the receiving account or attempt recall, but the window is short.
- Phone the real firm on a verified number and tell them what happened. Their other clients may be receiving the same email, and the firm needs to know if its mailbox is compromised.
- Report the fraud to Report Fraud, the national service that replaced Action Fraud in December 2025, on 0300 123 2040 or at reportfraud.police.uk, and keep the crime reference number; your bank is likely to ask for it.
- Keep everything: the emails with full headers, the account details you paid, timestamps. Do not delete the thread.
For UK-to-UK payments made by Faster Payments or CHAPS on or after 7 October 2024, banks and other payment firms in scope of the reimbursement rules must consider refunding authorised push payment fraud, up to a cap of 85,000 pounds and subject to exceptions, so being refused at first is not necessarily the end of the road. If the bank's final answer does not satisfy you, you can take the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge, within six months of that final answer.
Check whether the firm itself has been cloned
Sometimes the fraud goes further than a forged email: criminals clone an entire firm, copying the name, SRA number and website of a genuine practice. The SRA publishes scam alerts naming cloned firms and bogus email addresses; search them at sra.org.uk before sending money. Our guide on how to check a solicitor is legitimate walks through the five free checks, including the clickable SRA badge and the register lookup.
If you are earlier in the process and still comparing firms, the conveyancing quotes guide covers what a genuine quote must include, and you can check any firm's website free to see whether it shows the information the SRA expects.
This guide is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Website findings are automated, come from public pages only, and are not a legal opinion.
Quick answers
My solicitor emailed to say their bank details have changed. Is it genuine?
Treat it as fraud until proven otherwise. Law firms almost never change bank details in the middle of a transaction, and criminals who have read the email chain send exactly this message. Do not pay. Phone the firm on the number from the SRA register or from earlier paperwork, never a number in the email, and ask them to confirm.
I already sent money to the new account. What do I do?
Call your bank immediately and say you have been the victim of authorised push payment fraud. Speed matters: banks can sometimes freeze or recall funds if told within hours. Then phone the real firm on a verified number, and report the fraud to Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or reportfraud.police.uk.
How do criminals know I am about to pay a solicitor?
Usually by reading email. If either mailbox in a conveyancing chain is compromised, the criminal watches until completion is near, then sends a message that looks like the next email in the thread but swaps in their own bank details, often from a lookalike email address.