Devious scammers dupe homebuyers

With scammers invading most corners of our online lives, more sophisticated fraudsters are now targeting homebuyers by intercepting email communication at time of settlement, ripping off hard working Australians.

According to Slater and Gordon Lawyers, scammers are hacking email accounts of conveyancing professionals and tricking Australian property buyers into transferring them hundreds of thousands in settlement money.

Slater and Gordon Lawyer Julijana Todorovic said that their firm had received an increasing number of enquiries from property buyers who had fallen victim to the payment diversion scam, also known as conveyancing fraud.

“The con usually followed a data breach that enabled the scammer to intercept emails between the parties and request that funds be deposited into a different account,” Ms Todorovic said.

“This type of scamming is unfortunately happening right now across Australia and those unlucky enough to fall victim are losing significant amounts of money.

“We’ve been approached by an increasing number of people who have unwittingly transferred large sums of money, many hundreds of thousands, in accordance with detailed instructions they’ve received via email purporting to be from their conveyancer.

“But totheir horror, they’ve learned that the email was from someone pretendingto be their conveyancer.”

Slater and Gordon say that the victims soon realise this devious action when advised by their actual conveyancer that the funds never made it to the legitimate trust account at all.

While some bank customers are able to get their bank to block transfers if the fraud was discovered promptly, in other cases it has been too late.

Ms Todorovic said that chasing compensation for those scammed was a lengthy process that required proof of inadequate cyber security measures in place onthe part of the conveyancer that enabled the scammer to intercept the emails in the first place.

“It can take months to obtain the evidence required not to mention it being an incredibly stressful time for the property buyers involved.”

She urged anyone buying a property who was engaging the services of a conveyancing professional to take precautions, so they did not fall victim to fraud.

“Double-check the email address of any payment instructions you receive from your conveyancer, and if the address differs from previous correspondence you’ve had from them, you maybe targeted by a scammer.

“Taking steps such as speaking to your conveyancer to check that the request for payment is legitimate, and the bank details are correct is also advised before transferring any funds to the nominated account.”

She encouraged conveyancers to strengthen their cyber security measures as well to ensure that they weren’t easy targets to fraudsters.