Preventing scams

SIR – There is a simple means whereby the banks, collectively, could protect innocent customers from falling victim to the fraudsters who deceive them by quoting fictitious account details. The flat-buyer whose sad story you printed (“Fake solicitor tricked me out of £600,000”, Money, March 11) might not then have lost the £593,000 paid in reliance on a scam email.

An individual cannot in practice arrange a payment of £25,000 or more except by speaking to a human at his or her own bank. Payments to solicitors have to go to their client accounts. If the banks had an internal directory, subject to a secure updating process, with the details of all solicitors’ client accounts nationwide, willingly provided by the solicitors, it would be the work of moments for the clerk taking instructions for a payment to check that the destination for the funds was genuine. Anthony Rentoul

Twickenham, Middlesex