A recent scam commonly known as a ‘Man in the Middle” has successfully had funds deposited into their account during a property settlement. This happens when the scammer is able to successfully intercept an email and details of future financial transactions can be accessed. Scammers try to target property professionals and their clients during the transaction process. Here are a few tips on how you can protect your inbox.
- Check email addresses carefully to ensure they exactly match the address of the sender. Scammers will often slightly alter email addresses so that at a glance it might appear to match but tiny elements such as a single letter might have been altered.
- Scammers have been known to eavesdrop on email communications waiting for the opportune time to assume the identity. Be cautious of what information you share via email.
- Be mindful of emails that contain poor grammar, poor spelling or that seem like they might be written by someone who does not speak English as their first language. These are often tell-tale signs of a scammer.
- Do not access emails in public spaces where you have connected to a free wifi. Public wifi can be less secure than your home or work networks.
- We do not send any account details in an email. We will attach them in a PDF. We also request that when you receive this email, you call us to verbally confirm the account details that we sent.
As a final comment, we would say please choose your settlement agent wisely. As a franchise, we belong to a larger organisation. This gives us access to outstanding security on both our network and emails.