The Law Society of Northern Ireland has warned the general public, local businesses and its members to be extremely vigilant following a new report of a fraud perpetrated on a firm of solicitors.

According to the report, a client’s personal email address had been hijacked by a fraudster who then proceeded to communicate via email with a solicitor firm, posing as the client and requesting that monies owed to them from a settlement be redirected to a third party’s bank account.

The solicitor firm became suspicious of the request to redirect the money and contacted their client directly by telephone who confirmed that they had made no request for payment to be redirected to a third party.

Thankfully through the diligence of the solicitor firm the fraud was discovered, the clients’ money was safeguarded and the matter was immediately reported to the PSNI.

Arleen Elliott, president of the Law Society, said: “The public, local businesses and solicitor firms are asked to be extremely cautious of emails received in regard to the transaction of business.

“Always check and recheck and report all fraud including attempted fraud to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.”