Few payments are as exposed as a property deposit. The amounts are enormous, the payee is usually new to the buyer, and everyone is racing to hit a completion date. Fraudsters know this. They intercept email threads, send convincing updated bank details at the last moment, and redirect a deposit that the buyer may never recover. Verification of Payee meets this risk head-on by confirming the account before the money leaves.
Why property payments are a top target
- The sums are large enough to make a single successful fraud hugely profitable.
- Buyers rarely have an existing relationship with the solicitor's or agent's account.
- Last-minute changes are normal in a completion, so a fake change does not look out of place.
Where to put the check
The decisive moment is when the buyer is about to transfer funds to a solicitor, conveyancer or agent.
- 1 Verify the receiving firm's account name against the IBAN before the buyer transfers.
- 2 Treat any last-minute change of bank details as a red flag requiring re-verification.
- 3 Surface a clear result to the buyer so a no match stops the payment rather than delays it.
Last-minute bank changes are the warning sign
Genuine firms rarely change account details mid-transaction. A VoP no match on a freshly changed IBAN is exactly the moment to pause and confirm through a trusted channel.
For law firms, estate agents and the platforms that serve them, RoxPay can verify a receiving account in real time, turning the most dangerous payment in a person's life into a confirmed one.