A Scammer Stole Our Family Home!

Hi Scott,

My husband and I have seven kids, aged from one to 13. Five weeks ago we finally took the plunge and bought a big family home!

After the deal was done, our solicitor, Jenny, called and directed us to pay our deposit of $165,000 to the trust account. Then at 6:47am the next morning Jenny emailed us with a ‘correction’ to that account. I thought that was a bit weird, so I emailed back to confirm. Jenny came back almost immediately. All good.

So my husband took the morning off work and went to the bank to wire the money to the account. He paid the $35 bank transfer fee and made sure the teller checked and rechecked the numbers. That night we celebrated!

Then, two days ago, Jenny called to ask us where the deposit money was! Unbeknownst to her, hackers had taken over her computer and communicated with us from her exact email address, posing as her, using her exact language!

So we immediately called the police. They did an investigation and found that the scammer is in Kenya, so it was out of their jurisdiction. They also told us that Interpol doesn’t deal with ‘small amounts’. “There’s nothing you can do”, the police told us.

We have spent hours on the phone to our bank. They have given us $5,000 on the proviso that we drop any action against them. To say we are gutted is an understatement. Please alert all your readers to the risk of hackers accessing online transactions.

Nathan and Natalie

Hi Guys,

My heart absolutely breaks for you.

Here’s what you learned the hard way … that most people don’t know:

When you transfer money your bank always asks for the name of the account that you’re transferring the money to. Logically, you’d think that’s so their systems match and verify the account name.

But they don’t.

You could write ‘IMA BANK ROBBER’ in the account name and it’d still go through.

(Or ‘Drothy’, take your pick.)

Yet hang on, don’t the banks invest billions of dollars a year into cutting-edge artificial intelligence so they can cross-sell you credit cards every time you log on? Surely matching the account name would be a pretty basic code for them to add on?

Well, it turns out it is, and it works!

Five years ago banks in the Netherlands introduced account name checking and it reduced this type of fraud by a staggering 81 per cent.

So … why aren’t our banks doing it?

Well it seems it’s just not a priority for them.

But it is for me.

Nathan and Natalie, let’s make a ruckus this week, and see what happens.

Stay tuned.

Scott.