Warning for property owners

September 2010

A Western Australian living in South Africa says he was "flabbergasted" when he heard the news that scammers had sold his property. And a second property owned by the man was about to be sold, all without his knowledge.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 009345.htm is where the full story can be seen.

An international cybercrime investigation is underway after a Western Australian man is half a million dollars out of pocket when criminals sold his Perth investment property using stolen credentials.
The thieves, believed to be Nigerian, had enough information on the man to satisfy regulatory requirements.
State, federal and overseas police agencies will investigate the complex scam, which is considered the first of its kind in Australia. It is alleged scammers had stolen Mildenhall's email account, personal and property documents to sell the houses and funnel cash into Chinese bank accounts.
Real Estate Institute (REIWA) spokesperson said that the transactions were made via email, telephone and fax, without "interpersonal connections" with the legitimate owner.
It is clear it was a sophisticated outfit that scammed the owner, the real estate agent, the settlement agent, the banks, and more importantly and critically, the Department of Land Administration (DOLA).
The real estate agent involved in the scam followed due process.
The scammers had a comprehensive understanding of how transactions take place and of the legal processes ... And obviously a sophisticated outfit.

Officials soothe fears
Public concerns persist about the con that resulted in one man's 480 thousand dollar house being sold without his knowledge or consent.
A detective said emails authorising the sale originated from Nigeria and should have raised alarm bells.
"On most occasions, the emails show poor English. That's a very solid point that people should look out for when dealing with sales from overseas." He went onto say the emails came from Lagos.
Investigators said, "the emails were only brief, they didn't go into a whole gambit of conversation, it's just that the way the emails were structured, probably a little bit more notice should have been taken of that."
It has been revealed the scammers acquired the property owners email address. The scammers then sent his agents fake documents and then convinced the agents to sell the property.
This happened over a period of time between the suspect and the real estate agent and settlement agent in Perth here which has allowed the sale of the house to progress through the forwarding from that country a number of documents that assisted in that sale.
Explanations of how the fraud happened remain incomplete but has been reported as being a sophisticated scam.
The proceeds of the sale have been deposited in an offshore account in China.
Full story can be seen here, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 019052.htm