During a German property sale, a message arrives with an allegedly changed bank account. It fits visually with the previous correspondence and appears urgent. You may be asked as the seller to pass the details on to the buyer side. Treat the change as a process to be checked separately. A familiar display name or a matching PDF does not confirm its authenticity.
Do not make the message your own confirmed instruction
The Landeskriminalamt Baden-Württemberg describes manipulated invoices and fabricated changes of bank details. It recommends independent verification via known contact channels, rather than using telephone numbers from the suspicious message. [LKA] The official recommendation dates from 2022; it is used here as a general basis for prevention, not as current case statistics.
Our editorial application to the property sale: Do not pass on a surprising change as your own confirmed payment information without verification. Record the actual message with its content and separate it from the contractually agreed processing status so far.
Use a independently known contact
Clarify the matter with the actually responsible office via an already reliably known channel. Do not simply use the new callback number or a login link from the questionable message. Which change is actually required in the transaction must furthermore be included in the appropriate notarial or legal coordination.
Checking the character string alone is not sufficient for this method. A plausible IBAN does not, without further clarification, indicate whether it is allocated to the person and payment actually intended. The article does not present an unknown recipient as trustworthy based on a number.
An invented forwarded notice
A seller receives an email that appears to come from an involved party. It contains a new bank account and asks for rapid forwarding to the buyer. The seller cannot find the change in the existing file.
She enquires via the previously known contact and informs the responsible contracting office of the exact contents. Until clarification, she does not describe the details as confirmed. The example does not assess whether a specific message is punishable or what payment obligation exists in the individual case.
If money has already been transferred, act quickly
In the case of a suspicious payment that has been executed, the LKA recommends contacting your own bank as quickly as possible to request cancellation or recovery and then filing a report. [LKA] A successful recovery is not guaranteed by this. The parties involved need the actual payment transaction and the existing correspondence.
The article does not advise contacting suspected perpetrators yourself or making an additional test transfer. Specialist and legal questions about an already completed payment are clarified on a case-by-case basis. Technical account checks form part of qualified support where necessary.
Document the confirmed change traceably
When a genuine change has been clarified, record who confirmed it by which independent means and how it was incorporated into the agreed procedure. Necessary information is sent specifically to the parties actually involved. A new message should not create a second unchecked parallel status.
This way you protect the processing procedure from an unnoticed false confirmation. You do not have to prove the suspicion technically yourself in order to have a surprising payment change clarified via the correct channel.