A Gold Coast couple scammed out of more than $250,000 during a house purchase have warned Aussies not to make the same mistake they did.
Sarah and Laine Robinson, aged 44 and 39 respectively, have had their lives turned upside down after they transferred 15 years of savings into a scam account.
Their rental was packed up and the couple and their three kids were all set to move into their rural dream home in Mount Nathan before settlement in September.
The couple had even visited the property, with Sarah taking a heartbreaking photo of herself posing with the ‘sold’ sign with two of her young children.
Now they are living in a Benowa rental after almost becoming homeless, and say they can’t afford to remain on the Gold Coast.
‘We’ve had three months of basically torture,’ Ms Robinson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I feel like the conveyancer has let us down the most. They did not stress the importance of double checking everything, how do I clarify it’s them and not anyone else?
‘They did not stress the importance of vigilance.’
The Robinson family had even paid a visit to their dream property, with Sarah taking a heart-breaking photo of herself posing with the ‘sold’ sign with two of her young children
The family’s rental was packed up and the couple and their three kids (pictured) were all set to move into their dream home before settlement in September
Communication with the conveyancer was unnecessarily complicated, she said.
The email chain grew to include five people after a employee fell sick and another staff member took over, on top of administrative staff and the owner of the firm.
As settlement approached, the firm fell silent, but the Robinsons continued to liaise with the scammers who sent the account details of where to send the money.
The scam email almost perfectly matched their previous communication with the conveyancer, and had all the correct details, only missing a ‘.au’ at the end.
But by the time the couple noticed the tiny disrecpancy, it was too late.
They didn’t hear from the real conveyancer until the day before settlement, when the firm got in touch to say the had received the first payment of $60,000, but not the second of $252,000.
‘I was talking to the scammers for a week-and-a-half without knowing,’ Ms Robinson said.
‘I asked them, “why wasn’t there more communication?” They didn’t chase me up until the day before settlement at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.’
The Robinson family were almost homeless after they lost 15 years of savings to scammers
Victoria Police are investigating and have told the couple the money went to a 20-year-old university student in Melbourne who acted as a ‘mule’ and opened an account for the scammers.
It’s possible the student wasn’t aware of the scam.
The couple have been told that all of the money is still in Australia but dispersed among up to seven people, who are all known to police.
They said police have been ‘helpful’ but there was a frustrating delay when the case was transferred from Queensland to Victoria Police.
They’re also unhappy with their bank, ANZ, which told them ‘there’s been no fault on their behalf’.
Mr Robinson said no red flags or warnings came from the bank when Sarah went to their local branch to make the transaction.
It wasn’t until seven days later that they received a 9pm call from the bank asking to confirm the details of the transaction – but due to the late hour of the call and the foreign voice at the end of the line, they worried the call itself was a scam.
‘Look at all the profits ANZ have made this year, and tell us why you can’t get our money back,’ Ms Robinson said.
The couple are unhappy with their bank, ANZ, which told them ‘there’s been no fault on their behalf’ after they transferred the money to a scam account
She shared a simple warning for other Aussies looking to buy a home.
‘You’ve got to be aware of what you’re signing in a contract, because if you’re choosing to go electronic, you’re opening yourself up to so much scamming ability,’ she said.
‘There are all these systems that are letting us down as consumers.’
Ms Robinson, a nurse, and her husband, who has his own construction business, are now weighing up their next move as they come to terms with having to work well past retirement age.
‘We don’t know what to do. We can’t afford to live on the Gold Cost if we don’t have this money. The average house price here is over a million dollars,’ Ms Robinson said.
An ANZ spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that ‘we always attempt to recover funds customers have lost to scams or fraud’.
‘However, the ability to recover funds depends on a number of factors including how quickly it is reported to us, whether they are transferred to another financial institution, and the speed in which funds are then on-transferred by scammers.
‘In many instances, cyber criminals on-transfer funds within minutes, or use them to purchase cryptocurrency.
‘ANZ has a range of measures in place to help detect and protect our customers from fraud and scams and is continually reviewing and adjusting our capabilities as new fraud and scams emerge and criminals change how they operate.’
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