[Sethia Soliman]

Expecting couple lose nearly $40,000 to a real estate scam – ‘It’s unbelievably unfair.’​

While most scams come in the form of dodgy text messages or Facebook posts, it’s best to stay cautious about everything under the sun nowadays, even if they appear to come from a genuine business, as scammers continue to refine their cruel tactics to take advantage of unsuspecting Australians.

A Gold Coast couple were weeks away from moving into their dream home ahead of the birth of their second child. But they were left devastated after losing nearly $40,000 to a ‘cunning’ email scammer disguised as a real estate agent.

Mitch Wilson and Penny Davies thought they were following their agent’s instructions when they transferred the money to a bank account. They received an email from their agent, asking them to settle the final payment of $39,000, complete with bank details.

The expecting couple lost nearly $40,000. Source: PerthNow​

Naturally, the couple transferred $39,000 to the bank account and didn’t think about it again until they received a follow-up email a few days later from the same email address, asking where the money was.

‘It plays over and over in my head all of the time,’ Davies said.

‘We got an email from the real estate agent we had been dealing with, from their email account, saying “In light of the contract, please pay money to this account”.’ Wilson recalled.

‘We went back and forth. We exchanged screenshots and emails from their side and ours, and what was obvious is the money didn’t go where it was supposed to go, which was their account.’ Wilson said.

‘The money ended up in some fraudster‘s account and then to an offshore crypto account.’

The police believed that the cybercriminals hacked the real estate agent’s email address. They referred to the case as an email compromise scam, wherein fraudsters use the real account of a business to secretly gain some context of the situation before tweaking the bank account details.

So when a business owner sends an invoice, the hackers switch the bank account numbers and then forward the invoice to the unsuspecting customer.

A screenshot of the email and texts that the couple received. Source: 9News​

The scam was so sophisticated that both sides were left utterly shocked, wondering how it happened.

‘People with these skills – they‘re very cunning, they’re very calculated.’ Ian Wells from the Queensland Police Service Cyber Crime Group warned.

Another blogger, Constance Hall, has also fallen victim to the heartless scam.

Last month, she felt admitted to feeling ‘stupid’ after losing thousands of dollars to the fraudsters. She meant to pay a deposit on a rental property when she transferred the money using a link sent by the fake real estate agency.

When she contacted her bank, she was informed that she had authorised the transaction, so the chances of getting her money back were small. Her bank was only able to recover $7.57.

‘To have it all stolen in an instant… Felt unbelievably unfair.’ she said.

The police urged home buyers to always verify bank account numbers with businesses first before paying invoices online. If any issues come up, contact the bank as soon as possible to report the fraudulent transaction.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre advises impacted businesses to report the incident and alert their employees and clients. Businesses should also report the breach to their email service providers such as Gmail or Microsoft Outlook.

What are your thoughts on this horrifying scam case? Have you heard about this particular type of scam before reading this article? Let us know in the comments below!

Quick shout out to @Suzanne rose as well for sharing this story in the forum!

 

[Ricci]

Now I'm normally a mild mannered person who avoids all negative situations but this stuff makes my blood boil. Hanging is too good for these people, hanging, drawing and quartering is getting off lightly. Why do we not see these people arrested and if it's because they are not from here why are we not lobbying the relevant countries to do something. Why are we not withholding funding in order to protect our people. Hey, I have an idea, you get scammed $10grand or whatever, you tell the government, they reimburse you and then take that amount from aid paid to the foreign country. Foreign Governments might then start to crack down on it.

 

[mylittletibbies]

When settling properties our settlement agents always advise purchasers to ring their office and confirm account details before transferring any funds no matter how genuine the payment request may look.
Why were they paying this large amount to the estate agent(???)
Having purchased property in both SA and WA settlement is always done thru a settlement agreement (conveyancer).
So sorry for these people, what a terrible thing to happen to them.

 

[LarryWilkins]

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