Another Nigerian Perth scam house sale averted
Another attempted Nigerian fraud involving an absentee Perth owner has been fortuitously foiled by estate agency vigilance.
Scammers contacted Peard Real Estate North Beach to change a contact email address of the owner who was living in South Africa.
Police tracked the emails to Ghana, and the major fraud squad confirmed the scam was Nigerian.
The West Australian reports the scammers contacted the agency initially thanking it for a condition report the agent provided and to ask for a valuation on the Edgewater home.
There were phone calls that followed the initial email contact which created the suspicion, The West Australian reported.
A similar scam made headlines in 2010 when landlord Roger Mildenhall returned from South Africa to find his Karrinyup investment property had been sold.
Mildenhall lost his $485,000 home when it was sold by scammers in Nigeria.
A Ballajura family fell victim to a similar scam while living overseas about 11 months later.
It was a brick Ballajura house located 14 kilometres north of Perth.The owners discovered they had become victims of identity fraud perpetrated by scammers in Nigeria when they returned to Perth to inspect the property that had been sold and settled months before without their knowledge or consent.
The proceeds from the sale, almost $400,000, had been sent to a bank account in China.
In both Nigerian property scams that occurred in Perth, con artists were able to convince the agent, the settlement agent, the banks and Landgate that they were the title holders and could sell the property.
Once the transfers had occurred and the sales settled it became apparent that everyone had been duped, including the legitimate owners of the houses.
Those crimes led to fraud squad seminars to teach real estate and settlement agents how to detect and prevent similar scams, with national plans to combat the issue.
Consumer Protection Commissioner Anne Driscoll says the recent attempt was a reminder for all real estate and settlement agents to be meticulous with new procedures to prevent real estate fraud.
Real estate and settlement agents are now asked to follow the client identity verification and real estate fraud identification guidance notes introduced last year that involve confirming a vendor's identity and any change of contact and banking details.
