Many homebuyers could be putting themselves at risk of fraud by sharing sensitive personal information with a conveyancer, estate agent or mortgage broker, a mortgage tech firm has warned.
A YouGov survey of over 2,000 adults found a quarter had shared details of their bank account, address or other personal information on email during the homebuying process.
Whilst the majority were concerned about using email to share this data with property professionals, even going as far as to deliver sensitive documents by hand, a third were still using unsecured online methods.
According to Thirdfort, a compliance platform provider which commissioned the survey for mortgage professionals, fraud continued to be one of the most prevalent UK crimes, with email interception fraud a growing issue.
Indeed, losses due to authorised push payment scams were £239.3 million in the first six months of 2023, according to UK Finance.
Nearly four-fifths of authorised push payment fraud cases reportedly start online, and 18% started via telecommunications. Data from Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting service, showed, from August 2022 to July 2023, there were 18,011 reports of social media and email hacking.
Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and managing director at Thirdfort, said: “Our data shows that despite being concerned about the fraud risks, many homebuyers are still sharing personal information over email. This leaves them open to fraud.”
Homebuyers should check with their mortgage broker or conveyancer what security they have in place and avoid sending any sensitive data on email or via phone calls.
You can find out more about conveyancing fraud and how to protect yourself by reading this article.
