Please refer to our previous article regarding a financial scam in the financial services industry here. One of our clients has kindly supplied the following information
The adviser received an email in December purporting to be from one of their wealthiest clients, stating that they were in the Ukraine and that all their money had been stolen. They had managed to keep their passports but now needed funds to fly home urgently.
The fact that the email came from the client’s email address looked genuine, but it was in broken English; nevertheless, that could have been because the clients had just been mugged and would therefore have been extremely upset.
The adviser did not respond to this email and waited for any further instruction on the basis that if the clients really were in a desperate situation, then they would have followed up, contacted their family, etc.
Finally, the adviser rang the client who confirmed that they had been hacked and requests had gone to everyone in their address box.
The replacement business blind spot?
Paul Jay Compliance Drawdown, FCA, Pension, PI, platform, Switch, transfer
We’ve been involved with a number of firms who are on the acquisition trail and as part of the due diligence work we support them with, we check a lot of advice files. It won’t come as a surprise that many of these involve replacement business. What never ceases to amaze us is that, despite […]