A Melbourne family are the latest property purchasers to fall victim to scammers who successfully intercepted their conveyancer’s email.
The tech-savvy purchasers were convinced by a scammer that they were dealing with their conveyancer via email, when asked to transfer $500,000 to an account. But their worst fears were realised too late, having transferred the lump sum to a fraudster’s bank account.
CEO of Australian digital identity company Livesign, Lara Paholski, says that with the rise of payment redirection scams via Business Email Compromise (BEC) and identity theft and fraud, Australians are unfortunately more vulnerable than ever.
“We know that the most commonly targeted industries for cyber related scams are conveyancing, legal, real estate and construction, simply due to the fact that the transactions typically involve large sums of money flowing throughout the transaction lifecycle.
“Given that scammers are actively targeting these industries, its unfortunately put a significant amount of pressure on business owners in those industries to try to mitigate the risks of their clients falling victims to the scams, and their own company and brand being tarnished along the way.
“Using email technology which is over 50 years old, and conducting verbal checks on who you’re dealing with is no longer sufficient in this day and age for high value transactions. It’s easy for bad actors to penetrate and intercept as they become more sophisticated.
“At Livesign we’ve already built a secure and frictionless communication capability to replace emails, which prevents interception from scammers and ensures that the parties involved in a transaction are who they say they are.
“The technology has recently been integrated into one of our conveyancer client’s communication platform to biometrically secure their customer payments and transfer of funds, and so providing the customer with the confidence that their conveyancer is safeguarding their hard-earned life savings.
“We’re at a critical juncture in time where industry tech giants and peak industry bodies must now play a major role in guiding and offering members solutions that help to protect them and their clients in what is often the biggest purchase in their life.
“We know that all Australians are feeling vulnerable – but through our relationships with our mortgage broker clients, we are acutely aware that first home buyers are feeling particularly vulnerable. Too many already have already lost their life savings endeavouring to purchase their first homes.
“Consumers expect their legal and real estate professionals to be safe havens, to have robust identification and authentication measures in place. These safeguards are available now, and we’re encouraging the industry to embrace the solutions and industry experts who are on hand ready, willing and able to assist,” she said.
Co-founder of QLD based law firm Empire Legal, Abi Wright, says that all professionals involved in property have a responsibility to put robust measures in place to protect all participants.
“At Empire Legal, we’ve gone to great lengths to put in place what we can to protect our clients and their transactions, utilising the latest technology solutions such as Livesign,” she said.
“The reality is that we must all remain on high-alert in our industry, given that scammers are continually becoming more sophisticated.”
Figures from ACCC Scamwatch figures show $91.6m was stolen from Australians in 2023 in redirection scams alone.
