YOU HAVE YOUR SAY
EVERY week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails. Here’s what you had to say about the couple who were conned out of their house deposit.
NEWLY WEDS LOSE £45,000 DEPOSIT IN CRUEL ONLINE SCAM
Money Mail, Jan 6
ONE way to avoid being scammed is to transfer £1 to the account first and get confirmation that it has arrived with the right person. When it does, you can then transfer the full amount. This will protect you against fraud and innocent mistakes.
W. B., London. I THINK the banks have a lot to answer for in these situations. They should be checking who is opening accounts and what they are being used for.
S. P., Norwich. IF SUCH a huge sum arrives in an account and half is immediately removed, that should be flagged up as suspicious activity by the bank. So much for moneylaundering procedures.
F. F., St Albans, Herts. IT’S time for banks to make it harder for fraudsters to open accounts. You should need to show a passport, birth certificate and give your fingerprints.
I. B., Milton Keynes, Bucks. I DO feel very sorry for this couple, but equally I think they should have made more effort to check the details before they transferred so much money. If I had received an email with bank details I would at least have called the solicitor to double check.
S. M., Cheshire. IF THE first set of bank details were sent by the solicitor by email, then the couple would have no reason to doubt the second email.
I think the solicitor should be more careful with their clients’ details and not rely on email communications.
B. B., Belgium. YOU should never use emails to discuss any money issues, even with a solicitor. You can never be sure that they are secure.
C. C., Bath. WHEN you’re so excited about getting the property of your dreams, it’s easy for common sense to go out of the window.
I feel very sorry for this couple and I know it’s easy to say they should have called the solicitor to check, but they should have.
H. G., Barnet, North London. IT’S all very well saying the couple should have called the solicitor to make sure the details were correct, but the fraudsters probably put a fake number on the email, so that wouldn’t have helped.
C. R., Middlesex. THIS is the problem with today’s world where everything is done through email and electronically and no one picks up the phone to talk to each other any more or does anything face to face.
K. E., Wrexham.