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Property professionals are being advised to exercise extra vigilance following a bank impersonation scam that collectively duped three Western Australian real estate and settlement agents out of over $100,000.
The news comes just days after tactical cyber security and intelligence expert Thomas Jreige penned a warning that settlement agents (aka conveyancers) are at risk of cyber security attacks.
WA ScamNet revealed it has received one report from a real estate agent who lost a total of $43,080 and two reports from settlement agents who lost a total of $64,468.28.
The victims received a phone call from scammers posing as an authorised person from NAB and were told that a recent payment they had made from their trust account had been blocked as it appeared suspicious or hadn’t gone through and the account needed to be reset.
Alarmingly, the scammers knew exactly how much the recent payment was for in each reported case.
Then, the fraudsters told the victims they needed a code sent to them in order to unlock the account, but instead used the code to withdraw funds from the trust account.
Western Australia’s commissioner for consumer protection Trish Blake said it is disturbing how realistic this scam appeared to be and urges consumers and businesses to practice additional caution.
She also emphasised the importance of never disclosing personal details or access codes over the phone, even if the caller appears legitimate.
“If you receive a call from your bank, no matter how legitimate they may seem, never give out personal details or access codes over the phone,” Ms Blake said.
As a safety precaution, Ms Blake recommended ending any suspicious calls and contacting the bank’s known number such as the one on their website or a bank statement.
“It’s unfortunate, but always assume you are talking to a scammer,” she stated.
Ms Blake recommended setting up two-factor authentication on bank accounts as an additional layer of security.
“[We] know at least one of the victims did not have this set up,” she noted.
In response to these incidents, NAB has implemented a new system to send real-time personalised messages to customers when out-of-character transactions occur in their NAB online banking and smartphone app.
Similarly, the Commonwealth Bank recently bolstered its scam-prevention measures due to an uptick in financial fraud.
Meanwhile, the Australian Banking Association recently launched a campaign to increase customer awareness of financial scams.
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