Hi everyone,
So I'd like to precede this by saying I already feel absolutely horrible. I feel like throwing up constantly just thinking about this, but thought I would put it out there to see if anyone in the OzBargain community might have had any similar experiences or any advice.
Long story short, it appears a scammer hacked either my conveyancer's or the other side's conveyancers email accounts. and from doing so, got my details as well as the details of my upcoming property settlement. They knew the amounts due in terms of stamp duty payments etc, as well as the dates these amounts were due. They created a near identical email account to my Conveyancer, who I was emailing around 5-10 times a day and so simply didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when I received the scammer's email. It popped up only with my Conveyancer's name and the email address didn't come up as 'new sender' or anything. I know that I should have checked the email address before doing anything, but I had just answered about 3 other emails from my Conveyancer and still had about 3 to go. I had 6 emails in a row from her on different matters and it didn't at all enter my mind that 1 of these 6 might not be like the others.
In short, I transferred nearly $100K at the direction of this scammer who I believed to be my Conveyancer to the account they directed in the email. I called the Conveyancer later that afternoon to discuss another matter, and mentioned to her I had transferred the stamp duty payment for this property. It was then we both realised what had happened.
I searched the BSB and realised it was a Bank X account. I called Bank Y first (my bank) to ask them to commence a scam investigation and try recover the funds immediately. They advised the funds had already reached the other account but they opened the Scam investigation immediately. I then went to Bank X and tried to have them freeze the account the funds were received into. They said the account was already closed and for some reason, they couldn't see any details in the system about who had opened or closed it (how is that possible?). That night, I attended the Police Station and filed a fraud/scam report.
I now have the Conveyancer's insurer, the Police and Bank Y/Bank X working on this case but I'm accepting the worst and not expecting to get anything back. In the off chance anyone here might have had similar experiences and have any advice, I thought I'd raise it to the OzB community. Again, please don't pile on me. I know and I feel horrible. I've barely been able to sleep and I am just hoping there may be some avenue I haven't thought of, even if its not likely to succeed.
Thanks in advance everyone
Mod: Edited for privacy
Hi everyone,
For those will following, finally after over 3 months of fighting, the best update of all. Yesterday I received back every cent of what I lost in March to this cyberhack.
As part of the settlement, I can't comment much or disparage any parties who may have been at fault between banks, conveyancers or insurers etc but let's just say the Police didn't contact me once despite constant follow ups, the banks were little help (aside from my bank who did all they possibly could) but my conveyancers were AMAZING in pushing hard for me the entire time with the insurer once it became obvious the breach that occurred wasn't at my end. I owe this outcome nearly in full to my Conveyancers, who fought hard for me and to add, once we achieved the outcome and I asked them how much I owed for their support, advised they had treated this as Pro Bono work just to help achieve the right outcome. An absolutely incredible Firm who went the extra mile for their client.
To the OzB community, thank you for all your comments, advice, ideas and words of support. Especially after it first happened, the kind words were some comfort and a reminder to me especially after some horrible people did this to me that people are good. I needed that and so I thank you all for it :)
What incredible news, great to hear after all this time!
Great to hear, was the breach on the conveyancer's end though like their email?
Yes it was through their email
It must feel euphoric for you to have achieved this. Congrats and you're lucky to have achieved full justice.
I am not so sure about that.
OP got his money back through the insurer. That is a major win.
But the actual crooks are still at large ready to pounce on their next victim, or are in the process of doing so.
Also, the other party's conveyancer whose IT systems were breached don't seem to be held accountable for such piss poor security.
Hopefully, their insurer will increase their premiums.
That's one of the biggest issues in our society with Insurance. It creates a moral hazard.
Do note, usually after a cyberattack, the insurer will ask for access to the computers and take preventative action. However, with social engineering attacks, it is unlikely to make a difference to future attacks.
We all pay for it in the future in the form of inflation to the cost of services.
Restitution, not justice.
You won! I'm so happy this worked out for you!
Closure was had by all :)
Yay :)
Thanks buddy, it sets a precedent for us trying to get compensation for clients from Lawcover/Others. It seems like no doesn't mean no.