The property industry has made significant strides in strengthening security and protecting clients from cybercrime. Yet despite advances in technology, fraudsters continue to look for opportunities wherever money, data and trust intersect.
PEXA recently partnered with For Media Group for a webinar to discuss the evolving cyber fraud landscape and what firms can do to better protect themselves and their clients. The discussion between Angela Hesketh and Trevor Hellawell highlighted that while cyber threats can emerge at any stage of a transaction, completion remains one of the highest-risk moments.
Why conveyancing remains an attractive target
Conveyancers occupy a unique position within the property transaction. They handle large sums of money, verify client identities, manage sensitive information and coordinate multiple parties under strict deadlines.
To a fraudster, that creates a valuable concentration of information and opportunity.
Criminals understand the pressures that exist within property transactions. They know that completion days are busy, deadlines are tight, and funds are moving rapidly between organisations. Their objective is often simply to exploit a moment of distraction, urgency or misplaced trust.
The risk isn’t just technology, it’s process
When discussing cyber fraud, attention often turns immediately to phishing emails, malware or account compromise. While these remain significant threats, many successful attacks exploit weaknesses in process as well as technology.
Fraudsters frequently rely on social engineering techniques, manipulating individuals into accepting fraudulent instructions or bypassing established controls. In these cases, the challenge isn’t necessarily identifying sophisticated cyber attacks; it’s ensuring that critical decisions are supported by robust verification processes.
This is particularly important at the point of completion in the property transaction process, when teams may be managing multiple transactions simultaneously and under significant time pressure.
Building in a moment to pause
One of the most practical themes discussed during the webinar was the importance of creating opportunities to stop and verify before funds are transferred.
To illustrate this, Trevor Hellawell shared a personal experience. While distracted with holiday preparations, he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from his bank. During the conversation, he was sent a verification code and asked to read it back over the phone. Believing the request was genuine, he complied, only to discover later that the fraudsters had used the code to gain access and withdraw money from his account.
The story served as a powerful reminder that cyber criminals are often less interested in breaking through technology than they are in exploiting moments of distraction, urgency or trust. If someone who spends their career helping organisations understand cyber risk can fall victim to a scam at the wrong moment, it highlights how vulnerable any of us can be when we’re not fully focused.
In high-pressure environments, urgency can become a vulnerability. Property transactions often involve tight deadlines, multiple stakeholders and significant sums of money, creating ideal conditions for fraudsters to exploit.
Introducing structured checkpoints, verification controls and clear escalation processes can help reduce the risk of human error and prevent fraudulent instructions from progressing unchecked. For firms, this means moving beyond reliance on individual vigilance alone and embedding security into everyday workflows.
Designing fraud out of the transaction
The industry’s long-term challenge is not simply detecting fraud more effectively; it is reducing opportunities for fraud to occur in the first place.
This requires a shift away from fragmented processes, manual data handling and unsecured communication channels towards more trusted, and transparent transaction environments.
Digital transformation plays an important role here. By reducing reliance on email-based exchanges, improving data integrity and creating greater visibility throughout the transaction lifecycle, firms can strengthen security while improving efficiency.
A shared responsibility across the property market
Cyber fraud is not a challenge that can be solved by any single organisation. Conveyancers, lenders, technology providers and industry bodies all have a role to play in creating a safer property market.
As fraud tactics continue to evolve, the most effective defence remains a combination of strong processes, secure technology and a culture that empowers professionals to pause, question and verify when something doesn’t feel right.
Because when money is moving, every control matters.