Dr Ellen Wright was a victim of a conveyancing scam last January
When Ellen Wright lost over ?130,000 in a sophisticated solicitor scam in January 2015, her first port of call was her bank.
However, when she reported the fraud at 6.40pm on a Friday evening, First Direct told her the fraud team had finished for the night.
A few days before, Dr Wright, 56, thought she had made the final ?137,000 payment for a south East London flat she had bought for ?148,000 at auction.
However, as in many cases of conveyancing fraud reported by Telegraph Money, Dr Wright had been duped by an email from a criminal posing as her solicitor. The spoofed email explained a change in bank details and requested Dr Wright pay the remaining balance into the new account.
Dr Wright was on a skiing holiday in Austria when she made the transaction by telephone. She returned four days days later to the devastating news that she had lost her savings and her buy-to-let flat.
She said: ?If I?d been at home and wasn?t rushing to meet the payment deadline, maybe I would have spotted something.?
While she was abroad, emails were sent by her solicitor firm, Beverly Morris and Co in Blackheath, south London to let Dr Wright know the money had not been received. However, these were also intercepted and deleted.
Dr Wright only found out she had been a victim of fraud she phoned the solicitor to arrange to pick up the keys. She was then informed that transaction had not gone through.
She called First Direct to report the crime and try claw back what the fraudsters stole. But as it was 6.40pm on a Friday night she was told the fraud team had gone home.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/con...m-had/?ref=yfp
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