As the COVID-19 crisis continues to significantly impact our daily lives, most communities are joining together to support one another. However we are receiving increasing reports that the cyber-crime community is doing the exact opposite and that attempted frauds and scams are rocketing. This appears to be an attempt to take advantage of the distraction caused by the crisis.
Please take precautions to ensure that you do not become a victim of cybercrime.
We advise all of our clients that online and offline fraud is increasing year-on-year, particularly for clients buying or selling property. Emails are not secure and may be falsified. We have seen it happen, even in Cornwall: hackers recognise none of the usual boundaries where you would expect lower crime rates.
You should not rely on the integrity of emailed communications when sending funds without taking steps to check bank details. What this means in practical terms is that if you are going to send funds to anyone, you should verify bank details before you do it, preferably verbally.
Our initial letters and bills contain our bank details and we advise you that these will NOT change during the course of a transaction.
If you have received our initial letters through the post, you should verify our bank details by cross-checking them against the initial letter before you send any money.
If you have received our initial letters via email, you should verify our bank details by calling us before you send any money.
Although many of us are working remotely, we are still here and operating at as close to full capacity as we are able given the circumstances. Any of our staff will be happy to verbally confirm our bank details; they are used to doing it.
We recommend that you visit Get Safe Online which provides information on how emails scams work and how to protect yourself. In particular, enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA); sometimes called two-factor authentication (2FA), in your online services will significantly increase the resilience to mailbox hijacking and other unauthorised access to online services.
Get Safe Online has been updated to respond specifically to the current crisis and the scams which they are aware are circulating.
Here at Nalders we have well-developed technical and procedural defences in place to defeat fraud. Most importantly, we prohibit sending funds out of the firm unless the bank details we are using have first been verified, most likely by a simple and short telephone call.
During the current crisis, we are reminding and re-reminding all of our staff that we need to be on high alert for potential scams whether by telephone or by email. Please do not be surprised therefore if we call you to verify bank details which you have already provided.
We will keep in touch as the situation evolves but if you have any questions please get in touch, we have a dedicated COVID19 email address for this purpose: covid19@nalders.co.uk