A couple on the cusp of buying their dream home lost half a million dollars after a hacker tricked them into transferring their money over to them.
The Melbourne couple, one of whom works in finance and IT, transferred $500,000 to a cunning scammer who hacked into their conveyancer’s web server.
They believed the email had been sent by their conveyancer, a specialist lawyer, and therefore had no problem sending the money to an unfamiliar bank account.
Only later did they receive a call from their conveyancer who told them that no such transfer had ever been requested.
‘My stomach immediately dropped. I explained that the request had come from her email account, but she said she hadn’t sent it,’ the couple told realestate.com.au.
‘She checked her emails and found nothing, so within a couple of hours I was at the police station reporting that we had been scammed.
‘There was immediate panic, stress and tears and I said to my husband, “I’ve ruined our lives. That’s all of our money gone”. There were a lot of tears.’
The couple’s bank and the one used by the scammer refused to accept liability and police said the money had already been transferred into crypto currency and was therefore untraceable.
A Melbourne couple have been scammed out of half a million dollars after receiving an email they thought was from their specialist lawyer asking for the cash
The pair were on the cusp of buying their dream home when one of them noticed their mistake. ‘I said to my husband: “I’ve ruined our lives”‘
Police confirmed it was the couple’s broker who had been compromised by the hackers and that the IP address associated with the fake email came from overseas.
The couple are still waiting to see if their conveyancer’s indemnity insurance will recoup their lost fortune since the money they sent will likely never be recovered.
Scams similar to this one have been happening more often lately, according to Julijiana Todorovic, an associate at Brisbane legal firm Slater and Gordon.
The ‘concerning increase’ has been brought about by the rapidly developing cyberfraud landscape which has been ‘evolving faster than the law has been able to keep up’, Ms Todorovic said.
Even if the Melbourne couple’s fraudster is found authorities can not do anything about it since they are not in Australia.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancers (AIC) has been working with the Australian Banking Association to try and tighten up security systems to prevent more scams like this one in the future.
AIC Victoria operations manager Mark Powers confirmed the industry has worked to minimise risk but not all conveyancers are members of the industry group.
Sophisticated scammer have been getting more successful lately in part because of AI advancements
Mr Powers blamed the rising number of scams for creating higher premiums for insurance policies for customers.
David Willett, who is the chief information technology security officer at Australia’s largest digital conveyancy firm PEXA, said hackers are getting better because AI is getting smarter.
AI has been ‘beneficial to the bad guys’ but mindful thinking on the part of the consumer can help people avoid falling into similar traps themselves, he added.
Mr Willet urged anyone who receives an email requesting personal information with a ‘sense of urgency’ to think twice before following along.
Hackers typically try to make their victims send money or they may ask for usernames, passwords or bank or credit card information.
The ACCC’s Scamwatch recorded $91.6m being stolen from Australians in 2023 in redirection scams, but Mr Willett said the true amount is likely to be much higher.
