First-time buyer lost £47,000 after email 'impersonated'

First-time buyer lost £47,000 after email 'impersonated' He said the victim would now have to stay living with his parents for years to come Impersonation fraud is on the rise and the UK public and property market are increasingly the target, cybersecurity experts have warned, with one first-time buyer losing £47,000 when his conveyancer's email address was impersonated. Impersonation fraud is when a criminal pretends to be a trusted person, company or organisation, such as a friend, family member, law firm, local council, utility provider or even the police. The criminal will impersonate them by copying their email addresses or even creating whole websites that appear to be real, something made easier with the advent of AI. But in all instances, the victim is being tricked into sending money or sharing data that holds value for the criminals. Cybersecurity expert, Francis West, CEO at Security Everywhere, said: "Impersonation is rising fast and it's easier than most people think. I demo this live at talks all the time. I send someone a test email that looks like it's from their own address and it lands straight in their main inbox, not junk. People are genuinely shocked." Mr West said the reason it worked so easily was because, in his experience, fewer than 5% of people and 10% of businesses had their email addresses "locked down properly". He added: "I have seen the damage of impersonation first-hand: a friend's nephew lost £47,000 when his conveyancer's email was impersonated and the deposit account was switched. Both bank and firm both refused to take responsibility and the victim will now have to live with his parents for the next five to 10 years to save up for a deposit. Very sad." Simon Baggs, executive chairman of brand and content protection at Corsearch, said the methods of impersonators were becoming more advanced and AI was making things worse. He continued: "From fraudulent websites to AI-generated impersonation, bad actors are becoming more sophisticated. Consumers interact across digital channels, making deception easier. AI enables deception, including using celebrity images to appear to endorse products. The concern is consumer trust and safety: those deceived by fraudulent platforms may lose money, expose personal information or obtain unsafe products." Evren Ergin, founder of ValuQ, a property valuations tech platform, said impersonation was rife in the property sector. He added: "What frightens me most about property fraud is how quiet it is. There is no broken window. Someone steals your identity, poses as you and tries to sell or remortgage your home while you are still living in it, none the wiser. "The cruel twist is that the most exposed homes are the ones people are proudest of: mortgage-free and long-owned. No mortgage means no lender watching the door. HM Land Registry blocked fraud against £59 million of property last year, but when a case slips through, owners can lose tens of thousands, or the house itself." Broker Doug Miller, director of Bath-based Lansdown Financial Services, agreed that you're most at risk from fraudsters if your property is mortgage-free, and offered some practical advice. He added: "Every homeowner should sign up for HM Land Registry Property Alert and consider a Form LL restriction, an optional anti-fraud measure. Both are simple, low-cost steps that can prevent significant financial and emotional distress." Patricia Ogunfeibo, founder and non-practicing Solicitor at London-based tenant2owner, said she had experience of how effective HM Land Registry's alert system was. She added: "HM Land Registry's alert system couldn't work better. I once asked a solicitor to register something on a property I own, he did it while we were speaking and within the minute the service alerted me to his activity. However, the alert only notifies, buying the crucial time to act, while a free Form LL restriction will more than likely stop a fraudulent sale or mortgage being registered at all — stopping a property thief in their tracks." Darryl Dhoffer, founder of Bedford-based The Mortgage Geezer, said identity fraud could be devastating to the victims. He added: "I once had a client applying for an adverse-credit remortgage, only to discover a fraudster had already exhausted their equity via a hidden charge. Because the client already had a damaged credit profile, they hadn't noticed the extra credit footprints, which I discovered on inspection of their credit reports. "Fraudsters love complex profiles, hoping the noise masks their crime. To protect my operations, we mandate biometric ID verification, matching live selfies against passports to beat AI fakes. "Every homeowner must sign up for the free HM Land Registry Property Alert service today. It emails you the second anyone touches your deeds. For landlords or unmortgaged owners, get a Form LL restriction. It’s a total circuit-breaker." Security Everywhere 's Mr West gave tips to help people protect themselves against impersonation: "To start with, run a free DMARC check on your email, turn on two-step verification everywhere and stop reusing passwords. After that, check if you're already in a data breach ( Have I Been Pwned has logged 17.8 billion breached accounts) and never act on a bank detail change by email alone. Always pick up the phone, using a number you already had."