An anti-scam agency is warning property professionals to take care after a bank impersonation scam duped three agents
A state anti-scam agency is warning property professionals to take care after three real estate and settlement agents collectively lost more than $100,000 to a bank impersonation scam.
The scammers, pretending to be representatives from one of the big four banks, contacted the agents and claimed that a recent payment from their trust account had been flagged as suspicious or required account reset, according to a report from NCA Newswire.
One real estate agent lost $43,080, while two settlement agents lost a total of $64,468.28.The scammers exhibited detailed knowledge by accurately disclosing the specific amount of the recent payment made by each victim, NCA Newswire reported. The fraudsters requested a code that was purportedly needed to unlock the affected accounts. However, instead of resolving the matter, the scammers deceitfully utilised the provided codes to withdraw funds from the trust accounts.
In response to these incidents, National Australia Bank 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.
"It's disturbing how realistic the scam appeared to be," said Trish Blake, Western Australia’s commissioner for consumer protection. She urged individuals and businesses to remain vigilant and emphasised the importance of never disclosing personal details or access codes over the phone, even if the caller appears legitimate.
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“The best thing to do is hang up and call your bank back from a known number such as the one on their website or a bank statement,” Blake told NCA Newswire. “It's unfortunate, but always assume you are talking to a scammer.”
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 said.
The Australian Banking Association recently launched a campaign to increase customer awareness of financial scams. Commonwealth Bank recently upped its scam-prevention measures due to an uptick in financial fraud.
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