How Scammers Are Stealing Your Home Deposit
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- For a growing number of Aussies, online scammers are shattering their dreams and robbing them blind of their house deposits.
Will Clinton & Jessica Greentree lost their deposit and tell us how it happened.
#Scams #OnlineScams #RealEstate
For anyone purchasing a property, if you receive any emails with conveyancer’s bank account details, before making any payments pick up the phone and confirm the account details over the phone.
Yep its simple, or visit in person.
And don’t call the number on the email received.
It's just a necessity these days to do that.
Treat your money and your big lifetime purchases like if it is a SCAM.
Anything can be hacked.
Your hard earned money and time you can never get back.
I would think to drop off a cheque at the lawyers be better then transferring digitally. The old way of doing things may take a bit longer but probably safer.
I thought Australia had got rid of ALL cheques, including Bank Cheques several years back ? New Zealand by which I mean, the Australian Owned Banks which control NZ banking anyway, stopped issuing or accepting ANY and ALL cheques, several years ago. The ONLY way to buy a house, or transfer money to lawyers or to buy a house in NZ, now, and for the last several years, is by direct bank transfer, cash, or creditcard.
@@KiwiCatherineJemma you can still get bank cheques in australia just they charge you a fee i think it was $10 so people rather do a transfer.
@@rellett1 Thanks for that info. Bank Cheques are completely unobtainable in NZ, at any price. You MUST do bank transfers, for things like house deposits etc.
An easy fix, don't buy anything online. Do all purchases in person.
people too lazy
Why need for third party beneficiaries like PEXA in the first place? Middle men without any responsibilities but collecting all your data. Australia's Problem with Middlemen and financial cottage industry with middleman leeches that do nothing to add value / produce anything but ripping off everyday Aussies.
Why would PEXA be responsible for people depositing their money into some mule account?
NAB should be questioned on how someone able to open a mule account and where did the money end up!!
Without a middleman such as PEXA it’ll be a nightmare to settle a property purchase, especially when multiple parties involved.
It’s all about reducing cost (don’t need settlement staff with Pexa) increasing profitability and CEO bonuses.
@@R_Ali bank employees work with overseas scammers. The danger is from inside.
@@R_Ali Property purchases/transfers got done without PEXA without it being a nightmare before. Yes, need property conveyancer (or solicitor) to do transfer but it worked well before PEXA/before 2010 it without much hassle. Just took paperwork to a property conveyancer (as many homebuyers did, not solicitors).
Of course could email paperwork too but of course most did things physically, then, in person or via mail.
andromedablue was not saying don't need an intermediary with the legal expertise, but questioning why all home purchases/transfers have to processed, compulsorily! , through one (only) single private organisation (Link, Commonwealth Bank and Morgan Stanley are owners of this non-gov entity, with over 10 other major corporate companies having significant share in it, as well as the 3 principle ones and the operators, as above).
There's a few stories each year, where homebuyers (and other types of new property owners) have lost their money to fraudsters, as a result of PEXA only way to do it.
Considering who the principles are, and other (lesser) major shareholders include Super companies, Investment Management & Investment companies, and similar, it should be 100% secure and no-risk transferring.
(Well, nothing done via internet / electronically can be 100% secure at all times, but should be 99%.
Talking re being secure/not secure, PEXA were subject to a possible hacking in October 2023 due to a 3rd party major company to PEXA being hacked (in different ways to the several stories, like in this video).
Response/Statement by the 3rd Party "it does not believe any network or computer system has been compromised" & statements by PEXA included "is no evidence of misuse related to any of the affected user (digital) certificates", and no evidence that any of relevant data has been published, and in relation to any personal information".
How many times has a major company issued statements like that, in past several years, only to then find their systems have been compromised & private data was gained by malicious actors.
@R_Ali how did they do it before PEXA was invented 😅
It does save alot of time but at risk obviously.
That’s is VERY SCARY. And the Banks and Lawyers concerned do not care at all. I will definitely be very wary after this example. My heart goes out to these guys
Bank cheques the way to go. The old fashion system no one got scammed then.
Totally agree
that's what I do too, take out a cheque
That’s what I did , and cost me $70 the bank to process my land deposit money
I thought Australia had got rid of ALL cheques, including Bank Cheques several years back ? New Zealand by which I mean, the Australian Owned Banks which control NZ banking anyway, stopped issuing or accepting ANY and ALL cheques, several years ago. The ONLY way to buy a house, or transfer money to lawyers or to buy a house in NZ, now, and for the last several years, is by direct bank transfer, cash, or creditcard.
@@KiwiCatherineJemma no i mean just walk into a bank and say you want a cheque, if you got a premier account they can't refuse you
How about responsibility of banks! Any transaction must be checked.well solicitor or bank employees could be involved in it! Banks must ask where money come from according to the money laundering law, they can not send it overseas without asking any documents. Banks and real estate agents must be investigated by financial fraud department.
It's all very simple do a $1 test first and get verbal over the phone confirmation with YOU calling the person you are sending the money too which should be the registered number for their business. After my house sold I spoke to the real estate agent over the phone and verbally confirmed my account details as some won't do $1 test. With the lawyers the settlement funds were deposited into my bank account which was setup via a secure portal from the lawyers.
Absolutely. This simple check should be undertaken by everyone.
The dollar test is an excellent idea.
@ratnoinamaew, did you sell a house, in Australia, since 2019? Since 2019 nearly ALL land or house & land property transactions in Victoria & NSW must be done via PEXA (very few exceptions).
In Qld it can be done (only) via PEXA or Sympli Australia Pty Ltd.
A small (tiny) amount pre transaction only works if it's 2 party/direct to direct. Wouldn't be able to do that, re the 3rd party/PEXA or Sympli.
It'd work if figured out it is a scammer, but if had, not going to send them a thing with details/accounts.
In a similar story to this but slightly different, that was on ACA a few months ago a couple had sent a deposit through which went through fine. It was the full/balance that went elsewhere, it this time it was do with the Agent's computer. Transaction got to Pexa, but not to end destination (don't mean to vendor). On Pexa is a whole page with 'PEXA statement on third party incident'.
Supermarkets, & other big retailers, delivery mobs, etc, have a $1 validation (done by their payments process company), but it is only validating your card, before your first online purchase. Nothing more.
I do this all the time however it won't work on PEXA they want the full amount.
Yes you can still get cheques here in Australia. You need to request them. As for a a large purchase you can ask for a Bank cheque. It's similar to a certified cheque, of course the bank will charge you a fee, but it's way safer than a digital transfer. Its Just what I would do.. Too many horror stories of people being scammed out of all their money.
I bought a car 3 years ago. The salesman at the dealership handed me a piece of paper with the dealership account number on it. He said get in touch if we had any communication changing the payment details. It’s not hard….
From "July 2019, the use of PEXA has been mandatory in NSW". For nearly all real estate.
"In Victoria, property transactions, with few exceptions, are required to be conducted electronically using a platform known as PEXA (Property Exchange Australia)"
"Electronic Lodgement Network Operator mandate in Queensland, applies to all property transactions, including transfers of ownership, mortgages, and caveats".
Via either of only "two approved ELNOs - Property Exchange Australia Limited (PEXA) and Sympli Australia Pty Ltd." "Each party to the transaction must use the same ELNO".
(Quoted Sources- Coulter Legal, Delaney & Delaney, and Dott & Crossit websites).
There's 3-4 stories, like this one, every year on Network media. Number of similar incidents is maybe 3 times or more, since most people who get defrauded are never on any Media & often not a story that Media cares to do, unless there's a back story re the person/s.
Sometimes there hasn't been any change of payment details, re through PEXA, as haven't got them within 2-3 (even more) days. Your transaction was Vendor to buyer, with Vendor's account to pay to.
There was only 2 parties to your transaction. So direct, person/company to person. Wasn't an intermediary compulsory 3rd Party, the electronic (only!) information and the transaction had to go via.
A thing many people don't do is check the part of the urls after the dot, or email sender part after the dot. Sometimes it is exact same name/letters as real one but what is exactly where is very slightly different. And unless aware of how is done, many would miss it.
Yeah I like that.
Conyancers need to give there details out in a booklet with a few things inside.
Question is, how does the scammer know the intricate details of the purchase? Has their email account / computer already been hacked to begin with?
Emails are easily hacked, as are most online communications. Always assume someone else is reading whatever you are reading.
Australian government department AFSA.....
"From 31 October 2023 we will no longer accept cheques as a payment option. Due to the changing landscape of financial transactions and evolving needs and expectations of individuals and businesses, cheques are no longer a secure or efficient payment process, compared to digital transactions.
Cheques can be time-consuming due to delays in postage and processing. Additionally, cheque fraud and security concerns have posed significant challenges for financial institutions. The risk of tampering or forgery, along with the potential for loss or theft, makes cheques less secure compared to digital payment alternatives.
Removing cheques improves our efficiency as a modern regulator while also contributing to the growth of a more accessible and secure payments ecosystem for all Australians."
😂😂😂
I thought Australia had got rid of ALL cheques, including Bank Cheques several years back ? New Zealand by which I mean, the Australian Owned Banks which control NZ banking anyway, stopped issuing or accepting ANY and ALL cheques, several years ago. The ONLY way to buy a house, or transfer money to lawyers or to buy a house in NZ, now, and for the last several years, is by direct bank transfer, cash, or creditcard.
NAB 😂...NAB YOU ALLOWED THE SUSPICIOUSLY ACCOUNT TO BE OPENED AND WOULD HAVE NOTICED THE ODD BEHAVIOUR....so why would you protect the person behind the suspicious account and not retract the funds?
Same reason why they protect the kids doing 130 crimes a year and let them out.
The bad get protected while the good suffer
How scammers "are" stealing your home deposit. Or, how scammers "steal" your home deposit.
You guys do this all the time. Someone needs to read over everything they type. Or get someone else. Doesn't really matter though, no one cares...
There are grammatical errors in almost every media article nowadays. It's pathetic
we are a nation of whingers
How can they just make mule accounts? Using fake id? Is it so easy to scam a bank? 😮
Cryptos like Propy coin solve problems like this 🤷♂️
Is that reporter in the pink dress. Elaine. From Seinfeld ???