A real estate agency warns members of the house deposit scam

The real estate agency has sent a warning and advice to its members on how to avoid a new scam targeting homebuyer deposits.

The warning comes after Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden has expressed his concerns. Herald yesterday.

She said that real estate agents and lawyers were targeted by a sophisticated "bill scam" in which fraudsters hacked email from these companies and then sent legitimate bills.

the bill having the bank account of the law firm or the real estate agent, it is replaced by a fraudulent account number

Buyers are then deceived by paying their deposit to fraudsters at the place of a legitimate trust account.

managing director of REINZ (New Zealand Institute of Real Estate) said that he was aware of a handful of incidents in the country where the scammers had targeted home buyer deposits through attorneys and real estate agents.

"We have alerted our members on this issue and are developing a sheet of tips for agents on how to avoid cyber-fraud."

Meanwhile, Norwell advised the agents to encourage their customers to
and verify the bank account number directly from the law firm or the real estate agent before proceeding to the transfer.

"If people suspect that they have been victims of fraud, they must immediately speak to their local police station," she urged

The New Zealand Law Society also reiterated yesterday a warning to its members urging lawyers to be vigilant.

"The New Zealand Law Society repeats earlier warnings to lawyers to ensure their computer systems. are protected from incursions and are very cautious when they react to e-mails inviting them to open attachments.

"E-mails with attachments or an invitation to click on a link can not be approved even if they appear to be from a known source." Phone verification, where there is the slightest suspicion , is recommended, "she said.

The company said its warning followed a number of cases of law firms attacked or compromised by criminal scammers last week. The Barreau spokesman said he would not name the firms or say how much they had been affected.

ANZ Bank also sent a warning to customers on Tuesday after reading an example of a scam three weeks ago. In this case, a woman from Morrinsville lost her $ 28,500 deposit after receiving bank details of what she thought was the real estate agent who was managing the listing.

It later appeared that the email came from a scammer.

The woman only managed to complete the purchase of the house after another real estate company, with whom she had also dealt, rose up and paid the deposit.

A spokeswoman for ANZ Bank said that she with He added that these types of scams were hard to find for banks.

"These types of scams are hard to detect because they are fully authenticated transactions where the client has approved the beneficiary change." To avoid these scams, we focus on prevention and education activities to help customers put the right processes in place. "

AVOIDING BILLING JUDGMENTS
• Be careful when making payments to bank accounts that you have not paid before.
• It is recommended that you call the bank account. Company address to verify his bank account number
• Examine the sender details carefully, looking for similar domain names or characters exchanged for other letters. last-minute changes to payment instructions, especially if they are made outside of normal business hours.
• For business owners, ensure that staff are trained to recognize suspicious emails
Source: ANZ Bank