Vishing scam

Bit of a childish dig, from a moderator 🙄

It’s not about being perfect, it’s simply about understanding how banks work.

I would hope a solicitor looking after three quarters of a million quid of someone else’s money would be informed enough not to move it all to some random account that wasn’t even hers.

No bank would EVER ask a customer to do this. And she should know this. As should everyone really.

Don’t you think that’s a reasonable level of competency to expect from anyone looking after such large sums of other people’s money ?

Which not everybody does, not even solicitors who don’t specialise in banking – I can’t see that there is any particular requirement to understand how banks work on that level to do the job she did – she just put money in and took it out.

Maybe it is a reasonable level of competency we should be asking for, but I don’t find it terribly hard to understand how even somebody intelligent who deals with large sums of money might not have that level of understanding – it’s probably not something that’s ever bothered her. Though unlike you it seems, I can empathise with people who aren’t as perfect as me 😉

I would hope a solicitor looking after three quarters of a million quid of someone else’s money would be informed enough not to move it all to some random account that wasn’t even hers.

Agree with this 100%. If you’re insufficiently bright to be even vaguely aware of fishing scams then I wouldn’t want you holding my money.

As a professional that presumably deals in money transfers fairly frequently, it’s down to you to keep up your skillset as a matter of professionalism.

Sorry, I have very little sympathy here. Fortunately, it sounds like her clients have been reimbursed. Frankly, I hope she doesn’t ultimately fail financially as a result of a single mistake, but I won’t be losing any sleep over it.

I’m with nealglover & superficial on this one, there is just no reason on earth that a bank would ask you to transfer money from one account to another, I can see that some people might easily get tricked into doing so but if you are a professional in part getting paid to look after other peoples money your professional body are right to get you struck off

I’m not sure you are

I can see that some people might easily get tricked into doing so

I can’t see that there is any particular requirement to understand how banks work on that level to do the job she did

Yeah, I mean.. What’s the worst that could happen.

Ah, righto. I see.

– she just put money in and took it out.

That’s where the problems were. She gave all the money away to a complete stranger because another complete stranger told her to.

It’s professional incompetence plain and simple.

She gave all the money away to a complete stranger because another complete stranger told her to.

Just like most people do when they buy a house.

Just like most people do when they buy a house.

I transferred my money to the account of a competent Solicitor, who I had employed to deal with the transaction safely.

Not sure how you are suggesting everyone else does it 😕

I transferred my money to the account of a competent Solicitor, who I had employed to deal with the transaction safely

We’ve already established that you are practically perfect in every way, but most of us have no real way of assessing the competence of the solicitor, and still less do we have the means to verify every instruction that arrives from then, or appears to come from them. My point is that banks, solicitors etc have a degree of trust that may indeed not be warranted.

I transferred my money to the account of a competent Solicitor, who I had employed to deal with the transaction safely.

Exactly what she thought she was doing with the banks, no?

It’s very easy to be on the outside looking in and go “how could she possibly have fallen for it?” but the fact remains that she did. People do. It’s as much about the sophistication of the trick as the gullibility of the mark.

Scams like this are designed to trigger emotions – fear or greed are common – and when people are reacting emotionally they’re not always making good decisions. It’s very, very easy to make a stupid mistake in a blind panic; and even if she’d thought it was fishy, she’d believed she’d rung her own bank and (as ridiculous as the original premise may have sounded) they’d verified the story.

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have fallen for it, partly because I know about the phone trick but mostly because I’m generally sceptical of what people tell me and am distrustful of cold-callers. But many people will readily believe any old toot, as a cursory glance at ‘shares’ on Facebook will demonstrate.

I transferred my money to the account of a competent Solicitor, who I had employed to deal with the transaction safely.

Exactly what she thought she was doing with the banks, no?[/quote]

Not the same at all no.

I had a professional relationship with my Solicitor, and the transfer was arranged in advance, the account name and details were in hand, given to me by my Solicitor in his office.

What she did was hardly even similar, and certainly not exactly the same.