The Snitch: Scammers target Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh

Another celebrity has fallen victim to the cunning cyber scam that almost cost NRL legend Ben Elias a fortune. One of the Real Housewives of Sydney has narrowly avoided losing a rumoured $550,000 to the sophisticated fraudsters.

• NRL legend Ben Elias swindled out of $800K in cyber scam
• Cyber crooks fleecing Aussies of almost $1m a day

A Real Housewives of Sydney star has become the latest celeb to fall victim to a cunning cyber fraud scam.

The cyber attack targeting Krissy Marsh mirrored the $860,000 scam that also caught out footy legend Ben Elias last month.

Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh is a victim of a cyber fraud scam. Picture: Mark Calleja

Unlike Ms Marsh, Mr Elias’s bank managed to track the hefty sum just before it was wired offshore.

According to police sources, the scam involves hackers impersonating legal advisers and sending ­invoices their clients are already expecting, such as stamp duty payments. The emails look as if they are sent by a law firm with only subtle changes, account details or an email address.

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Ms Marsh was targeted during the purchase of a $10 million beachfront home in Queensland’s Noosa.

A hacker sent an email purporting to be from law firm Mills Oakley, which was representing the “property princess”, to Credit Suisse. It is understood Credit Suisse was involved in the ­financial side of the property deal.

The email requested the mother-of-three pay hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of the settlement.

Rugby league legend Benny Elias was also targeted by the scam. Picture: Christian Gilles

Snitch understands the sum transferred was about $550,000 but Ms Marsh would not confirm the figure when contacted on Saturday.

“The police are aware of it but I am unable to comment at the moment,” she said.

A Mills Oakley spokesman said “the principle cause of the Marsh ­incident was a failure by Credit Suisse to identify a fraud­ulent attempt to impersonate” one of their lawyers.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS

A toxic relationship with an abusive bikie has cost a criminal lawyer her career and almost landed her in jail.

Alina Yousif was sentenced to three years jail in the District Court last month after she was caught in a drug operation involving her boyfriend, Bandidos bikie Clinton Parkinson. But she was given a reprieve when Judge Sean Grant allowed her to serve the sentence in the community by way of an intensive correction order.

A judge said Alina Yousif’s affair with a bikie was her undoing.

Ms Yousif was a promising lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service in Griffith when she was arrested in 2016. The court heard she has now relinquished her legal practising certificate and has moved to another industry.

Judge Grant told the court that Ms Yousif “fell into a toxic relationship with Mr Parkinson. “The lure of love with a bikie criminal and the use of drugs was her undoing. He was ­described by police as ‘a grub’,” Judge Grant told the court.

Ms Yousif met Parkinson while he was in jail for supplying 563g of methylamphetamine and possession of firearms.

When police swooped in 2016, the court heard Ms Yousif was counting money for a drug operation that ­involved Parkinson.

She was charged with taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug and participating in a criminal group.

PAYDAY FIGHT

The row over the police force’s pay freeze is heating up.

In a message to members this month, the Police Association was less than impressed when it claimed Commissioner Mick Fuller “actively opposes” any pay ­increase being backdated to July this year.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

The association claims the stance was revealed in the Industrial Relations Commission, where the union is fighting for the pay increase to be awarded.

“In a time when police are front line more than ever for the unprecedented responses to natural disasters, COVID border restrictions and hotel quarantine, this has left frontline officers considering their next actions,” one source said.

The NSW government’s decision to freeze a 2.5 per cent public servant pay rise after boosting Mr Fuller’s salary by $86,000 stirred contro­versy earlier this year, even though the top cop offered to forgo the backdated pay increase because his own troops weren’t getting rise.

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Originally published as The Snitch: Scammers target Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh