The Law Society has issued the following guidance on how solicitors should react to 'scams' involving fraudulent requests for bank account details:

Solicitors' firms, and other types of organisations, often receive letters, faxes and e-mails that relay imaginative factual circumstances and include a request for bank account details which will allow the author to transfer money to the solicitor and/or requesting a payment from the solicitor.

Such communications are often received from abroad and are usually relatively amateurish.

However, some solicitors have raised concerns that these communications may give rise to suspicions that criminal property is in circulation, and so should be reported to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA).

The Metropolitan Police and NCIS refer to these communications as 419s (so named because of the section number of Nigerian criminal law that applies to it).

They both take the view that recipients should regard them as scams with no truth in them.

Their advice to solicitors is do not bother to read 419s in detail, in no circumstances reply and do not forward them to NCIS.

However, if a solicitor's firm recognises a variation in the pattern of 419s being received, or a 419 contains bank account details, solicitors may report the matter to: SCD6 Intelligence Unit, Wellington House, 67-73 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6BE or e-mail: fraud.alert@met.police.uk.

The position may alter if there is knowledge or suspicion that money has actually changed hands, in which case it may be relevant to consider the reporting obligations under the POCA.

There is no professional conduct requirement to report 419s to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors.