The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has issued a warning following a number of reports of bogus offices being set up as clones of legal practices in order to steal mortgage loans or advances or even client/account information.

The CLC bogus firm warning states that firms need also to be aware that there is a risk that their own firm might be cloned, with their own letter-heading, website, email and telephone number being controlled/falsified for these purposes.

In the warning, they have set out a number of steps that conveyancers can take to help ensure that they protect themselves. These include:

• being alert for suspicious activity or transactions e.g. a transaction which others believe you are involved in when you’re not;
• carrying out internet searches for your firm’s name, or your name, or those of partners and staff, to see if there is anything suggesting a false office/identity/website;
• ensuring that all contact details for the firm are correct on the CLC’s licence register – and again following licence renewal.

Further details of the warning notice can be found on the CLC web site

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