Grandparents lose their house deposit

In late 2021, an elderly couple in Queensland decided to sell their family home because of health issues. But while they were in the middle of the sale, cybercriminals stole $52,757 from them by hacking into their email. This caused them a lot of stress and took a toll on their health over the next six months.

Their daughter realised something was wrong when she looked at the final paperwork for the house sale and saw that not all the money had been deposited into their account. It turned out that the scammers had hacked into one of their email accounts and tricked the real estate agency into sending the deposit to a different bank account. The real estate agent thought the request was legitimate, so they went ahead and did it without checking first.

Luckily, with the help of the Queensland Police Service and the bank's fraud team, they managed to reverse the transaction and get the money back. But the hunt for the cybercriminals who did it is still going on.

Cybercriminals often target the real estate industry because a lot of money is involved and the transactions can be confusing. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) have both warned about this. Now, REIQ contracts include warnings about the risks of sharing bank details over email and suggest confirming any banking instructions verbally.

While these grandparents got their money back, not everyone is so lucky. This is a reminder for everyone to be careful because anyone can become a victim of hacking. Always double-check any banking requests to avoid falling for scams.