Email for notaries
The challenge at a notary's office
At a notary's office, two sensitivities come together. First, the content: draft deeds, wills, marriage contracts, data on property transfers and estates. That falls under your professional secrecy and should never end up with the wrong recipient. Second, the money: with a purchase or the settlement of an estate, considerable sums pass through, and the payment instructions for them often run via email.
That's exactly what makes notaries a sought-after target for fraud. In invoice fraud, scammers intercept or imitate a message and send an altered account number, so a buyer transfers their purchase sum to the wrong account. In CEO fraud, someone poses as the notary or an employee to prise loose a payment. A forged sender address resembling your firm's is the classic trick here. The challenge is therefore twofold: your messages must stay confidential and you must be able to prove that a message really comes from your firm.
What the rules require
As a notary you have professional secrecy, and the personal data you process (from parties to a deed to heirs) falls under the GDPR. The main line: you take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect that data, and unsecured email is generally not straightforwardly suitable for sensitive documents and payment instructions.
What those measures involve exactly is filled in by the data protection authority and your professional body. In Belgium you look to the Belgian Data Protection Authority (GBA) and the Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries (Fednot). The core is the same everywhere: don't share more than necessary, secure the transmission, and be extra vigilant with payment instructions.
This is informative explanation, not legal advice. When in doubt, consult a specialist or your professional body. You can read more about the broader framework in sending personal data by email under the GDPR.
What your email then needs to be able to do
From that dual task (confidentiality and authenticity), email for a notary's office calls for a few concrete things:
- European, GDPR-compliant hosting: so you know where the data from your files is stored and under which law it falls.
- Encrypted connections (TLS): so deeds and instructions are protected in transit between you and the server.
- Correct sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC): so it becomes harder for fraudsters to pose as your firm.
- Strong filtering against phishing and malware: the first line against fake emails trying to redirect a payment.
- Strong access security: with two-factor authentication as an extra lock on every mailbox.
- Reliable backups and management for the whole firm: so correspondence is preserved and you manage mailboxes for employees centrally.
Email for notaries: why Mailflux fits
Mailflux gives you professional mailboxes on your own firm domain, hosted in Europe and GDPR-compliant: the foundation that suits a notary's professional secrecy. Your data is stored in Europe, connections run encrypted via TLS, and you optionally switch on two-factor authentication per mailbox so a leaked password doesn't immediately grant access to ongoing files.
Against fraud, authenticity counts most of all. Mailflux supports the standards for sender authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) that make it harder for scammers to send messages that appear to come from name@yourfirm.be. On top of that, the filtering against spam, phishing and malware works with machine learning, which helps against the fake emails that invoice and CEO fraud start with. With changed payment instructions, always verify yourself via a known phone number: technology helps, but the final check remains human work.
Working with several notaries, clerks and a secretariat? With bulk account management you create mailboxes under one firm domain in one go, plus shared addresses such as info@ or files@. The webmail works in the browser on any device, without installation. Mailflux is already at work elsewhere in the legal corner too: lawyer Viki chose it for GDPR and security reasons and works with it smoothly and productively via the webmail. If you recognise that confidentiality question, then email for lawyers is a related page, and on who Mailflux is for you'll see which professions are also on board.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How does email help against invoice fraud during a property transfer?
Correct sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) makes it harder for fraudsters to send messages that appear to come from your firm, and the filtering catches a lot of phishing. Always verify changed account numbers via a known phone number before an amount is transferred.
May I send deeds and wills by email?
Only securely and limited to what is necessary. These documents fall under your professional secrecy and contain personal data protected under the GDPR. Ensure encryption and check the recipient. When in doubt, consult your professional body about the appropriate channels for sensitive documents.
Can I manage email for my whole notary's office centrally?
Yes. With bulk account management you create mailboxes under your own firm domain in one go: an address per notary, clerk and employee plus shared addresses such as files@. That way the firm keeps management central and all communication comes from one recognisable, authentic domain.