WA property boom attracts scammers
Payment redirection scams in WA are on the rise, with 11 victims losing more to fraudsters in the first half of the year than those who fell prey throughout 2023.
WA’S property boom has attracted an unwanted side effect, with payment redirection scams in WA already topping 2023 figures
Eleven victims lost a total of $503,285 to payment redirection scams which exceeds the amount lost by 29 victims throughout the whole of 2023.
Property transactions make up the majority of those who are being targeted, according to Consumer Protection’s WA ScamNet team.
And while reports to Scamwatch nationally have declined substantially this year – by 28 per cent – the total lost to scams is on the rise, indicating Australians are losing higher amounts.
Just recently, a young Sydney couple’s loss of their $48,000 house deposit to a sophisticated email scam highlighted that payment redirection scams are still a growing threat.
Will Clinton and Jessica Greentree fell victim to an email impersonating their solicitor’s office as they entered the settlement phase of buying their first home.
It was an issue raised in an Australian Conveyancer Special Report when we told the story of first-time buyer Simon Elvins, who was swindled out of $270,000.
WA’s experience shows cyber fraudsters are still targeting property.
One man lost $153,950 after fraudsters intercepted emails between him and his settlement agent in relation to the purchase of a property, the WA ScamNet team revealed.
The criminals sent the buyer a fake email pretending to be the settlement agent, swapping the bank account details to one they control. The victim did not notice a slight difference in the email address.
“The large losses from these scams are extremely devastating to the victims,” said WA Commerce Minister Sue Ellery.
“They can be people who have been saving for years for a home deposit that has now been lost to scammers or it could be a business doing it tough that can least afford to lose a large amount of money.
“People working in the industries where large amounts of money are being transacted and consumers need to be extra vigilant when acting on payment requests.”
UNSW cyber expert Professor Richard Buckland said: “Millions of dollars in a transaction are available if the attacker gets it right, so they’re highly incentivised. It’s a complex thing that goes wrong in a complex way.”
