Fraud alert: Fake standing orders

What’s the scam?

We have been alerted by a member to an attempt to defraud their firm’s client account using multiple fake standing order mandates.

Over the course of around a week, more than 130 standing order mandates purporting to be from the firm were received and intercepted by the solicitor’s bank, addressed to branches across Scotland and England.

The bank’s internal processes captured almost all the fraudulent standing orders before processing, with no losses suffered by the firm. However, the solicitor’s bank highlighted the scale of the attempted fraud and how unusual the tactic was.

What should you do?

We would encourage all members to:

• regularly monitor your business bank accounts to ensure that any unusual activity is spotted early
• keep in regular contact with your bank to again ensure that any unusual activity is highlighted and dealt with promptly.