The scam targeting buyers and sellers – and how you can stay safe Buying or selling a home is one of the most significant financial decisions a person will ever make. Today, residential property is Australia’s most valuable asset class, worth close to $10 trillion.
Recent frauds across the country
A WA woman made headlines this month, losing $732,000 after scammers intercepted email As part of every settlement, sensitive communications between her and her information, such as bank account details, as well as large sums of money, settlement agent. are required to be exchanged. As confirmed by the Consumer And it’s this reason that cybercriminals Protection WA, the victim received are targeting the sector in droves – the an email with authentic-looking documents attached from whom nature of the communications and she thought was her settlement the finances involved are placing a agent asking that the money be sizeable target on the industry. deposited into a bank account prior to The most common form of attack settlement. being seen currently are “payment The message came redirections”, part of a broader via a generic Hotmail technique known as “business email email address that compromise”. used the agency’s In a typical payment redirection scam, name. scammers impersonate a business or its employees via email and request an Before carrying out upcoming payment be redirected to a a final inspection of the property, the real fraudulent account. settlement agent But what does this look like in reminded the buyer practice? 8
