'Friday afternoon fraud' hits UK homebuyers as misdirected-payment scams cost victims £101m a year
Conveyancing fraud, in which criminals intercept email communications between homebuyers and solicitors or estate agents and redirect completion payments to fraudulent bank accounts, is one part of a wider scam category that cost UK victims £101 million in the 2025-26 financial year, according to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud). That figure covers 3,657 scams involving payments misdirected to the wrong bank account. Separately, between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, Report Fraud recorded 140 property-specific cases with an average loss of £78,393 per victim. In the most severe case reported, a homebuyer transferred the entire £300,000 purchase price to a fraudulent account. The scam, sometimes known as 'Friday afternoon fraud', typically occurs at the point of exchange or completion, often timed before a weekend when buyers are under pressure to transfer funds quickly. Criminals either hack the solicitor's genuine email account or use a spoofed address closely resembling it. The City of London Police has warned the scam extends beyond purchases to affect renters and probate transactions. Protective steps include verifying bank details by telephone before any transfer, treating any last-minute instruction to use new bank details as a red flag, and using a bank's confirmation-of-payee service, which flags name mismatches on transfers.
Why this matters
The £101 million lost across misdirected-payment scams, with conveyancing fraud a substantial part of it, confirms that this is now a systemic risk in the UK property transaction market rather than an occasional outlier. The average loss of nearly £78,000 per property case is particularly significant because it often represents a buyer's entire life savings or deposit, making recovery critical and reputational risk to solicitors acute. The extension of the scam beyond purchases into rental and probate transactions broadens the client population at risk and increases the potential liability exposure for conveyancing firms. With the UK property market conducting hundreds of thousands of transactions annually, the fraud vector is structural rather than opportunistic.
On the Ground
This story sits at the intersection of banking and finance, property law, and professional liability. Solicitors face potential claims in negligence if their email systems are compromised and client funds misdirected. Banking and finance lawyers advising lenders will need to consider whether mortgage completion processes adequately protect against interception. Regulatory practices may be engaged on firms' obligations under money laundering and client money rules administered by the SRA. A trainee working on a related professional liability matter would assist with disclosure review, chronology preparation of the email chain, and witness statement bundling. On a preventive advisory matter, they would help draft or review client-care letters and cybersecurity protocol documentation for conveyancing departments.
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