Settlement emails and AI security: what conveyancing correspondence gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

Conveyancers already know the shape of the risk: payment redirection fraud works by learning when a settlement is happening, how much is moving and where, and then sending one convincing email. A settlement email carries all three facts, plus the identity documents used to verify the client. This page marks every item in a routine settlement email that leaves the firm when it is pasted into ChatGPT or Claude, and shows how the same email is drafted on Ermos inside the firm.

The conveyancing settlement email

Sent to the client in the days before settlement, confirming funds, documents and timing.

To:
From:
Subject: : settlement Thursday

Dear Daniel and Priya,

Settlement of your purchase is booked for through PEXA. To confirm:

  1. Funds.
  2. Trust account.
  3. Identity.
  4. Adjustments.

Keys will be released by the agent, Harbourside Realty, once settlement is confirmed.

Kind regards,

An invented email. The passport and licence numbers are placeholders. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the firm

  1. 1
    The purchasers

    Two named clients. Personal information under the Privacy Act and confidential under rule 9. Rule 9 confidentiality guide.

  2. 2
    The property

    A specific address about to change hands. With the date, enough to target the transaction. Rule 9 confidentiality guide.

  3. 3
    The settlement date and time

    When the money moves. The first fact a payment redirection fraud needs. Rule 9 confidentiality guide.

  4. 4
    The amounts and the lender

    How much is moving, from whom, and when it has to arrive. The second fact a fraud needs, with the lender’s name as a bonus. Rule 9 confidentiality guide.

  5. 5
    The trust account details and the anti-fraud warning

    The firm’s trust account, and the sentence meant to protect the client from a redirection email. Both now on a third party’s servers, which is where a convincing fake email would be built from. Law Society AI guidance.

  6. 6
    Passport and licence numbers

    Two government identifiers, collected for the Verification of Identity rules. The material identity theft is built from. Privacy Act guide.

  7. 7
    The vendor’s circumstances

    A named third party, her move into aged care and a request the clients refused. Her personal information, and nobody needed it to draft the email. Privacy Act guide.

  8. 8
    The solicitor and his phone number

    The person the client is told to call to check for fraud, identified for anyone who wants to impersonate him. Law Society AI guidance.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

  • The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
  • On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
  • The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
  • Once sent, the firm no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Ermos Dominion

The document is drafted on a unit in your office, from your own templates and the matter file. Every marked item stays on the unit, which keeps working with the internet switched off. Nothing in it is transmitted to an AI provider, so there is no disclosure to analyse: the confidentiality work is the same as for your file server.

Ermos Edge

Your documents, the index and your access boundaries stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre. When a staff member asks for this draft, only their question and the excerpts they are permitted to see go to a named Australian provider, who is contractually barred from keeping the content or training any model on it. Nothing is processed outside Australia.

Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)Ermos EdgeErmos Dominion
Where the document is processedProvider servers, generally offshore on personal plansYour instance in an Australian data centre; answers generated in AustraliaThe unit in your office
Who can read itProvider staff and systems, under policyYour staff, within the boundaries you set. The named Australian provider processes only permitted excerpts, under contract, and keeps nothingYour staff only
Is it keptOn the provider’s termsKept on your instance; the provider is barred from retaining itStays on the unit
Can it train a modelOn consumer tiers, yesNo, by contractOnly your own unit learns from it, on your hardware

Part of AI data leakage in law firms. See how this works in practice: Property work on Ermos.

Common questions

Do ChatGPT and Claude use the information in a conveyancing settlement email?
Yes, anything pasted in is sent to the AI company's servers to be processed. As at October 2026, whether a conversation on a personal plan (ChatGPT Free, Plus or Pro; Claude Free, Pro or Max) can be used to train the models depends on a setting each user controls. Business plans (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise) and the developer APIs sit under commercial terms, and OpenAI and Anthropic each say they do not train on that content by default (OpenAI, Anthropic). On either product, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons can send a whole conversation back for training. A settlement email holds the timing, the amounts and the trust account details that a redirection fraud needs.
Can we use ChatGPT or Claude for a conveyancing settlement email if we remove the names?
No, because the transaction is still there after the names go. Removing names rarely makes a document anonymous. Information stays personal information while the person is reasonably identifiable, and the OAIC warns that information can be at risk of re-identification even when it has been de-identified or anonymised. The property address, the settlement date, the amounts and the trust account details describe one purchase, and the passport and licence numbers identify the buyers outright. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends in its guidance on commercially available AI products that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, because of the significant and complex privacy risks.
What if staff use their own ChatGPT or Claude account for a conveyancing settlement email?
The practice loses sight of the email, because a personal account belongs to the staff member who opened it. On a personal plan the user cannot choose where conversations are stored or processed. Some business plans let an organisation choose to store data at rest in Australia (OpenAI), which still leaves the content with the AI company. Both companies can also review content that is flagged for safety or policy reasons. For a settlement email, that leaves the buyers' passport and licence numbers, the trust account details and the settlement timing outside the practice's control.
How can a law firm use AI for a conveyancing settlement email without sending it to ChatGPT or Claude?
Ermos is built so the document stays under your control. On the Dominion AI unit it is drafted inside your office and none of it is sent to an AI provider. On Ermos Edge your documents and index stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre, and only the question and the excerpts the user is permitted to see go to a named Australian provider that is contractually barred from keeping them or training any model on them. The solicitor asks for the email in plain language, and it is built from the contract, the settlement statement and the firm's standard letters. The solicitor checks every figure and account number against the file before signing.
Why is this the page conveyancers should read first?
Because the fraud it describes already happens, without AI. Payment redirection relies on knowing a settlement's timing, amount and accounts. A settlement email pasted into a frontier model puts all three on a third party's servers, retained on that party's terms.
The firm's own trust account is on its letterhead. Is it really confidential?
The account details alone are not secret. The account details together with a named client, a date, an amount and the firm's own anti-fraud wording are the ingredients of a convincing redirection email, which is why they should not sit anywhere the firm does not control.
How is settlement correspondence drafted on Ermos?
From the contract, the settlement statement and the firm's standard letters, all on your own network. The unit drafts the email with the figures from the file, and nothing in the file leaves the office.

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