Real estate agency Peard and Associates thwart bid by Nigerian fraudsters to sell home in Edgewater in Perth
AN attempt by Nigerian fraudsters to sell a Perth home by identity theft has been thwarted by a real estate agent.
AN attempt by Nigerian fraudsters to sell a Perth home has been thwarted by a real estate agent.
The criminals began the process of selling the Edgewater home, in the city's north, earlier this month by emailing the property manager at real estate agency Peard and Associates.
They used a fake email address in the real owner's name to ask the agent for a document and also repeatedly phoned the agency requesting the property be sold.
The agent sent a confirmation of the change of contact details to the original address on file, following guidelines for combating identity fraud.
The real owners in South Africa were then alerted to the scam and told the agency that the sale request was fake.
Detective Senior Sergeant Pete Davies said WA police were investigating the scam attempt and were also working with real estate agents to raise awareness about these types of crimes.
He said major fraud squad detectives had over the past two years delivered several fraud awareness presentations to the WA property industry, educating real estate agents about how to detect and prevent fraud attempts from being successful.
"Our presentations and the new identity verification guidelines have successfully stopped several recent attempts to illegally sell WA homes,'' he said.
The industry's codes of conduct were strengthened after the fraudulent sale of Perth homes in 2010 and 2011.
Consumer Protection commissioner Anne Driscoll said the recent attempt was a reminder for real estate and settlement agents to follow the new procedures.
"This incident proves that scam attempts can be detected and foiled from the start if real estate and settlement agents follow the client identity verification requirements and real estate fraud identification guidance notes introduced last year,'' she said.
Scam attempts should be reported to Consumer Protection on 1300 304 054 or WA police on 131 444.