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The rise of the Aussie scammers could well be a movie playing out in the country’s property market as you sip your morning cuppa.
How's that mate?
📎 An overheated realty market.
📎 Hackers on the prowl.
📎 Millions being scammed overnight.
📎 Rising prices are bringing more property settlement scams.
📎 Most victims are individual buyers or business owners.
How and why are they doing it
1️⃣ Impersonating agents/conveyancers, taking money for home deposits.
2️⃣ Bad cyber-security and bank verification slip-ups.
3️⃣ Huge increase in average transaction values, making everyone targets.
What it looks like
💀 ACCC Scamwatch reports at least two scams every week.
💀 14 scam reports in March, with 25 in total for 2022 so far.
💀 Losses of 186% at AUD1.8 million.
💀 NSW’s (costliest in Australia) housing market took first place in terms of money lost (AUD4.3 million) in the period of Jan 2021-March 2022.
💀 Scamsters are also snatching stamp duties intended for state revenue departments.
💀 Most belong to Nigeria and the U.S.
What you should do
✅ No transfer requests through email.
✅ Check account details and verify identity before sending large sums.
✅ Setup a two-factor email authentication.
✅ Payment info change request? Check with the organisation first.
Essentially, this market needs to cool-down, while banks down under need a good shake-up.