Crimestoppers & the Safe Buyer Scheme launch Home Buyers Safety Campaign to Consumers

Crimestoppers & the Safe Buyer Scheme launch Home Buyers Safety Campaign to Consumers

Crimestoppers, the independent crime-fighting charity, has launched its national consumer fraud awareness campaign in partnership with the Safe Buyer Scheme.The Home Buyers Safety Campaign is designed to raise awareness of the risk of property fraud with home buyers, encouraging them to choose a conveyancing firm that is committed to protecting their clients from fraud and financial loss. This is great news for the hundreds of solicitors and conveyancing firms that are already registered on the Safe Buyer Scheme, as they will benefit from this positive exposure to home buyers and the public.

Latest statistics provided by the City of London Police show that Buyer Deposit Redirection Fraud, which occurs when a fraudster impersonates a conveyancer during a property purchase, is costing buyers £16m per year at current levels. According to Land Registry figures, £25million was lost through property hijack in the year to April 2017. Despite increased awareness of fraud within the conveyancing industry, these figures are still increasing at alarming rates year on year.

Roger Critchell, Director of Operations for Crimestoppers, said: “Buying a house is one of the most important events of an individual, couple or family’s life, and fraudsters trying to ruin that is totally unacceptable.

“By working with the Safe Buyer Scheme to launch this campaign, we hope that we are raising awareness of fraudsters who look to intercept money during the house buying process, while also asking for the public’s help in trying to reduce the number of incidents.

“There are over one million property transactions a year in the UK, and with your information, we can help law enforcement locate these fraudsters, which will ensure buying a home is a safer process.”

Crimestoppers has a dedicated web page for the Home Buyers Safety Campaign, which can be viewed here https://crimestoppers-uk.org/get-involved/our-campaigns/national-campaigns/home-buyers-safety-campaign/. Using a range of broadcast and online media to engage with the public, Crimestoppers, the Safe Buyer Scheme and other organisations supporting the campaign, are promoting the campaign website page to members of the public. From here, consumers are signposted to the Safe Buyer Scheme to search for a registered conveyancer, as consumers can have the bank account details for these firms independently validated using Safe Buyer to prevent fraud.

If your firm is already registered on the Safe Buyer Scheme and you would like to see how your firm appears to consumers, or you would like to register (which is free) so as not to miss out on this high profile promotional campaign, visit the Safe Buyer Scheme website https://www.safebuyerscheme.co.uk/ .

This article was submitted to be published by the Safe Buyer Scheme as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer

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