'My heart dropped': Aussie tradie reveals how falling victim to one email scam saw him lose his entire $110,000 home deposit
Electrician Louis May was aged 23 when he saved enough to purchase his first home by working 10-hour shifts, six days a week, for years.
He finally found an affordable apartment within his budget at the age of 24 and was "very excited" to be moving into his own home.
Louis was tech-savvy, so when he received an email from who he thought was his lawyer, he never thought it would result in him losing his $110,000 house deposit.
Louis' lawyer had contacted him using two different email addresses throughout his home purchase process.
Therefore, he wasn't surprised when he received another email from a third account instructing him to complete a Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) form.
'I got sent a PEXA form that instructed me to transfer money into a BSB and account number into an ANZ account,' Louis told SBS Insight on Monday.
"I didn't really think much of it. I had corresponded for a few days with the new third email address."
Louis followed the instructions in the email and checked in with his bank before transferring $110,000 into the ANZ account.
However, on the day of his property settlement his lawyer called to inform him that the agreed-upon $110,000 wasn't in his account.
"When I said: 'I did what you had told me', and he said 'I'd never emailed you a PEXA form', my heart dropped," Louis said.
"That was the moment that I realised I was scammed."
In 2024, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) urged people to verify payment details directly with a business before paying an emailed invoice, amid a rise in losses due to payment scams.
Australians in 2023 reported losing $16.2 million to scams like the one that caught Louis, with the amount lost per scam being significantly higher than in 2022.
'Scammers are sophisticated criminals and are becoming more targeted in how they exploit Australian consumers and businesses,' ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
'These criminals are posing as genuine businesses that a consumer has recently dealt with, sending fake invoices with altered payment details so that the money ends up with the scammer.'
'This scam is hard to detect because the scammer will either hack into the email system of the business or impersonate the business's email address by changing as little as one letter."
Ms Lowe advised people to take the time to call the business on the number they have found to confirm the payment details are correct.
In February, Australia introduced the Scams Prevention Framework, imposing obligations on businesses in key sectors where scammers operate, like banks, mobile networks, and social media companies.
These sectors are required to take reasonable steps to prevent, detect, disrupt, respond to, and report scams, or face fines of up to $50 million.
As for Louis, he was unable to recoup his losses, with his bank offering him a remediation payment of $1,000, which he declined.
He was still able to settle on his apartment thanks to a loan from a family member.
However, he is now paying an additional $600 a month in interest because he had to take out a larger mortgage, with the ordeal leaving him "pretty heartbroken".
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