Brisbane couple conned out of $102,000 in savings for a house in elaborate scam

A couple who saved for 10 years to put together a $102,000 house deposit were left in shock when a scammer took the lot within days.

Nicola and Adam Hunt, who have eight adult children, had scraped $150,000 together to buy a house and land package in Brisbane’s south, with construction not yet started on the home.

‘I work five days a week, sometimes six and Nikki works four days a week. We’ve been saving every cent we can,’ Mr Hunt told Channel Nine’s A Current Affair. 

On a friend’s recommendation, the couple engaged mortgage broking firm Real Estate Investment Finance and had found them to be very responsive.

‘We could ring him late at night or anything like that and he’d email us back or ring us,’ Mr Hunt said.

‘As we are communicating with the broker, he asked for our identification. We’ve got birth certificates, we’ve got licences, our whole ID.’ 

The Hunts were completely unaware that at some point a hacker inserted themselves into the legitimate correspondence and posed as the broker by almost identically copying the email address.

The fake address had some punctuation marks and one word different. 

The hacker then eventually managed to convince Mrs Hunt to share the couple’s banking login details and shortly after they asked for the transfer of $102,000.

‘I feel responsible for that part. I feel stupid for giving those details out,’ she said.

Mrs Hunt said she was so caught up in the excitement of buying a house she had no idea she was handing over the money to scammers.  

The Hunts did not find out they had been conned until they were out for a weekend dinner. 

Mrs Hunt said she received a call from a lady working at the Commonwealth Bank, informing them that hackers were trying to take a further $20,000.

She said she began to shake and ‘feel sick’ in disbelief. 

Mrs Hunt said she clings to hope the money can be returned despite police telling the couple it had already been moved offshore making it almost impossible to track.

Cybercrime expert Dave Lacey said that unfortunately the Hunts were unlikely legally to be able to claim the sum back.

‘If you are volunteering or providing info such as security info, passwords, questionnaires, or access to your device, then typically the victim will wear that loss,’ Mr Lacey said. 

‘There is no restorative justice we would typically view when it comes to these crimes.

‘The mortgage industry, like the property or real estate industry, are often honey pots for people’s information.’

The hacker managed to electronically impersonate the mortgage broker that the Hunts were using

Mr Lacey advised that people should not react to any communications of a financial nature without verifying the contact through other means. 

Real Estate Investment Finance said it believed an isolated phishing scam was responsible for the loss.

‘Our client takes the matter very seriously and is working closely with cybersecurity experts in an effort to fully understand what has occurred,’ the broker’s law firm Stockley Pagano Lawyers said in a statement.

‘Our client has been in continual contact with Mr and Mrs Hunt. Our client is of course prepared to assist the Hunts with their enquiries.’

The Commonwealth Bank said it is also investigating.

For the Hunts what is left of their dream home is only the plans.

Mrs Hunt said she wanted to build something that would be ‘easy to maintain’ and that she was looking forward to swimming in her own pool. 

She said it was disheartening to see the money vanish after working every week and saving every penny.