Reach your savings goals with our simple, straightforward savings accounts and cash ISAs.
See all of our reviews
Have your cake, and eat it too, with our award winning Cash ISAs
Discover our range of specialist buy-to-let and residential mortgages, available through intermediaries.
If you're a landlord, you can only apply for our mortgages through an Independent Financial Adviser. Click below to find an advisor.
Don’t forget, our discounted buy-to-let products benefit from our Track to Fix feature!
Find the right finance to get you moving with our tailored business and personal loans.
Developed in response to your feedback about the need for speed, simplicity and accuracy of lending applications, you can now log in and apply in minutes.
Find all the latest news, stories, insights and tips from Paragon Bank.
Summer is traditionally the busiest time of the year for housing completions as buyers and sellers rush to follow through on transactions agreed in spring. More recently, it’s also become a bumper time for a new and lucrative type of financial crime – conveyancing fraud – and buyers need to be on their guard to make sure they steer clear of this potentially devastating offence.
Conveyancing fraud is what’s known as an ‘Authorised Push Payment’ (APP) scam. In this type of scam, the victim is tricked into authorising the transfer of money from their bank account to the fraudsters.
In conveyancing fraud, criminals hack into the email chains between buyers and sellers and their solicitors and estate agents.
The fraudster poses as the victim’s solicitor. When the time comes to transfer funds to the solicitor – either for a deposit or the purchase balance - the fraudster sends the victim an email that looks like it’s an authentic communication from their solicitor but is in fact a scam email linking to the criminal’s own bank details.
As fraudsters monitor previous communications, they can make emails appear identical and delete real ones from accounts. Friday is a particularly popular day for attacks as people tend to be more relaxed as they head into the weekend.
Hundreds of people have been tricked by conveyancing scams in the past few years and the losses can be life-changing.
Action Fraud, the UK’s cybercrime and reporting service, received 120 reports of conveyancing fraud between January and September in 2017. Victims lost £68,119 on average and the highest figure reported by Action Fraud was £988,0911. Conveyancing fraud is now included in the overall statistics for APP fraud and in 2018 it increased to £354 million of lost funds from almost 84,000 victims.
According to Action Fraud, this is a really sophisticated social engineering fraud and it can be difficult to spot.
To help protect yourself, Action Fraud suggest these measures:
Scam victims should contact their bank as soon as they become aware that they’ve been tricked and ask them to contact the receiving bank and freeze the account.
It’s also important to report the scam to the police and to log it with Action Fraud.
Unfortunately, banks are not always willing to compensate customers involved in APP scams because the payments have been authorised by the victim.
However, victims should find it easier to get their money back under a new voluntary code of conduct that came into force at the end of May.
Under the new code, banks will have to reimburse consumers for their losses provided they have taken reasonable care.
The Banking industry is also working with Pay UK to implement a new Confirmation of Payee service that will confirm the account holders name before funds are transferred to help prevent APP scams.
Conveyancing fraud is a sophisticated and potentially devastating type of financial crime. Before setting up and authorising any money transfer be absolutely sure that you’re sending your money to the correct account.
1: Included within The Telegraph, I lost £600,000 to a conveyancing scam, 18 March 2018 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/lost-600000-conveyancing-scam-will-no-one-help/
Head officeParagon51 Homer RoadSolihullWest MidlandsB91 3QJ
Paragon Bank PLC is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered in England number 05390593. Registered office 51 Homer Road, Solihull, West Midlands B91 3QJ. Paragon Bank PLC is registered on the Financial Services Register under the firm reference number 604551