Home buyers are again on alert for a scammers after a fresh ruse robbed a man of $153,950 during a property settlement.

It is among the more than $500,000 lost by Western Australians this year in so-called redirection scams.

Crooks intercepted emails between him and the lender’s settlement agent, and sent him a doctored email claiming to be the settlement contact.

There was only a slight difference in the email addresses, which the buyer did not detect. The fake email included new bank details into which to deposit the settlement funds, and the money was stolen.

Eleven WA victims have been hoodwinked out of $503,285 in 2024 – about $2000 more than the total sum of redirection scams in the state in 2023.

Property settlements are the most commonly targeted but the WA consumer watchdog said in a statement that buyers have also been scammed in the process of buying a vehicle, finalising building contracts and making funeral payments.

“Known as ‘payment redirection’ scams, these stings often target high value financial transactions such as real estate and vehicle purchases, and business contracts,” a statement from Consumer Protection WA said. “The fraudsters behind this scam hack into email accounts and get information about financial transactions underway.

“The scammers may appear to take control of the business’ email address or create a new, almost identical, email address that is difficult to distinguish from the original. This scam particularly targets victims who may be expecting a message requesting payment and are less likely to question it.”

WA Commerce Minister Sue Ellery urged consumers to be a wary of emails in which a business changes bank account details.

“The large losses from these scams are extremely devastating to the victims,” Ellery said in a statement.

“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.

“Be suspicious of any email asking for a payment of money or advising of a change in bank account details to where payments are to be sent. We also ask that businesses warn their clients or contractors and train their staff to be scam aware.”

Sourced from Domain