Hacking into email accounts and impersonating the owners to steal money, information or both is a growing form of crime that almost cost this family the entire proceeds of their property sale.At the start of the year Paul and Ann Lupton sold the flat they had bought for their daughter, Tracey, near Waterloo, south London, for £340,000. She had recently had a child and moved to a bigger home.
Two days before the set completion date of February 27, Mr Lupton’s solicitor, Perry Hay & Co in Richmond, Surrey, emailed him requesting his bank account details for the sale proceeds to be paid into.