Aiif
Insurance in Johannesburg

The AIIF is a non-profit company, which is currently managed by Aon. The main objective of the AIIF is to protect the public by providing professional indemnity insurance cover to all attorneys practices.

The AIIF provides all legal practitioners who are obliged to be in possession of a Fidelity Fund certificate, with a primary level of professional indemnity insurance. The Company is funded by the Attorneys Fidelity Fund by way of a single annual premium. Our primary purpose is to provide all legal practitioners who are obliged to be in possession of a Fidelity Fund certificate, with a primary level of Professional Indemnity Insurance. The Attorneys Insurance Indemnity Fund NPC (AIIF) is a non-profit, short-term insurance company, duly incorporated under the company laws of the Republic of South Africa (registration no. The AIIF’s primary purpose is to provide all legal practitioners who are obliged to be in possession of a Fidelity Fund certificate, with a primary level of professional indemnity insurance. As an added service to the public and the profession, the AIIF also provides bonds of security to attorneys appointed as executors of deceased estates (within certain limits). Under-settlement claims have the highest average value per claim of all claim types that are reported to the AIIF. We have been advised of a new scam involving a slightly different modus operandi from the one doing the rounds for the past two years. In one such matter, after a property sale had been cancelled, the conveyancer needed to refund the deposit to the purchaser. He thereafter received an e-mail with details of an account held with Nedbank, into which the refund should be paid and he duly made the payment using electronic banking. This enabled him to send messages to the conveyancer and the purchaser, which at first glance, came from their real e-mail addresses. Although these scams involve a different modus operandi every time, the main and constant factor remains that the scammer attempts to defraud the conveyancer to change the banking details into which the proceeds or deposit refund have to be paid. Many conveyancers’ normal safeguard is that any change in banking details must be in writing, either via an e-mail or fax. Even the second safeguard, of a bank statement with a recent bank stamp or a letter from the bank, is useless as these documents can so easily be forged. The earlier scam that made the rounds could very easily be identified as the scammer sent an e-mail from a completely different e-mail address from that of the seller or the purchaser, preceded by a telephone call to the conveyancer with an explanation that the relevant party is experiencing problems with his/her existing e-mail account. However, these e-mails have either been hacked or spoofed, thereby creating the illusion that the conveyancer is communicating with the existing seller or purchaser. The scammer will even provide the purchaser with fake banking details for the conveyancer, into which the deposit or purchase price must be paid. Some conveyancers are all too susceptible to these scams as unsound and archaic procedures are no longer effective risk management tools. Unfortunately the mistake is only realised when the scammer has already withdrawn all or most of the funds from the fraudulent account, leaving the seller without his/her proceeds and the conveyancer with a possible PI claim. If the client has such an address, then it might be a worthwhile precaution to follow up any e-mail sent to that address with a short telephone call to ensure that important correspondence has in fact been received by the correct recipient.