A conveyancing attorney fell for a scam e-mail purporting to be from her client and making a last-minute request to transfer the proceeds from the sale of her house into another bank account. Now she is refusing to take responsibility for the loss. Lynne Marshall and her partner Rick Lawrence engaged Botha & Venter Attorneys of Tygerberg to transfer their Muizenberg property to a new owner. The property was registered in both their names, meaning they both had to sign all the sale-related documentation, including a written instruction to the conveyancers, on June 23 last year, to pay the proceeds of the sale into their Absa account, Marshall says. After their bond was settled, and all fees paid, that amounted to R420000. In mid-September, Marshall e-mailed the conveyancers to say she had not received the money as expected. In response, she received an e-mail from an assistant to attorney Ronelle Botha with proof of the payment that was made - not into the couple's Absa account, but ...
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