The simple mistake that saw Aussie woman scammed out of $813,000 she had saved to buy her dream home
Aussies are being urged to triple-check online payments after a woman was scammed out of $813,000 after being tricked by a fake invoice.
Aussies are being urged to triple-check online payments after a woman was scammed out of $813,000 after being tricked by a fake invoice.
The South Australian woman was in the process of buying her dream home when she received an email from who she thought was her conveyancer.
But the email was actually sent by cunning fraudsters - who changed just one letter in her real conveyancers email address.
Believing the invoice was real, the woman paid over $800,000 to the account provided to finalise the purchase of her dream home.
Instead, her hard-earned cash was quickly transferred from the scammers fake conveyancing account and used to purchase cryptocurrency overseas.
The woman only realised two days later that she had been scammed.
After contacting her bank, the woman filed a police report through ReportCyber.
An AFP-led Joint Policing Cybercrime Coordination Centre (JPC3) worked with state and territory police and the womans bank to locate the missing cash.
Scammers changed just one letter in a real email address - prompting the woman to send over $800,000 to who she had thought was her conveyancer (stock image)
Unbelievably, investigators were able to retrieve $505,000 of the womans money after they froze the scammers bank account.
Scammers usually disperse stolen funds to multiple accounts over Australia and the world, making it almost impossible to track.
And the womans luck didnt stop there - investigators then discovered more of her funds - almost $300,000 - had been transferred into cryptocurrency.
Crypto exchange platform Binance was asked to freeze the scammers account and $272,000 was recovered.
After the months-long investigation, $777,000 was returned to the woman meaning she only lost $36,000 to scammers.
AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Darryl Parrish said it was crucial Aussies double-check emails and banking details.
He said businesses can protect their online accounts by setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA), which makes it harder for scammers to access.
Aussies are being urged to triple-check online payments after a woman was scammed out of a staggering $813,000 after she was sent a fake invoice (stock image)
AFP Senior Cybercrime Analyst Carolyne Burge said Aussies should be extra vigilant when transferring a large sum of money.
If you receive an email asking to make payments to a new bank account, we strongly recommend that you contact the person who you deal with on a regular basis via a known contact number, she said.
She said customers should never use a phone number included in an email because it is most likely a scam number, and to look online instead.
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), self-reported BEC scams amassed a total loss of around $80million in 2022-2023.
The average loss for a victim was a staggering $39,000.
