ONLINE SECURITY – HOW TO PREVENT BEING SCAMMED IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

It is regularly reported in the media that scammers target real estate transactions due to the large sums of money transferred in real estate transactions. Victims of these scams rarely get their money back.

There are a number of increasingly standard precautions that you can take to protect yourself both online and generally.

These precautions include:

• having current anti-virus software, spam email filters and operating system security updates installed on your electronic devices;
• verifying that all requests for transfers of money or personal information relating to your conveyance have come from us and that the account numbers are those supplied directly to you by us;
• being aware that email is not a secure form of communication;
• being mindful that it is possible to impersonate others online.

Email is not a secure form of communication and there is a risk in sending personal information by email. It is possible for scammers to impersonate others online including by:

• having current anti-virus software, spam email filters and operating system security updates installed on your electronic devices;
• intercepting emails from compromised email accounts and changing bank details before they are received by the other person.

Lawlab uses the online platform Rundl to communicate and share documents with clients and other transactional parties such as agents and mortgage brokers and this reduces the risk of scams or fraud in our conveyancing transactions.

Rundl users need to create an account with their own unique username and password. Although Rundl users will still receive automated email notifications from Rundl when we post a message, Rundl users should log in to Rundl to view any sensitive information such as bank account details and verify this information through an offline process, such as by telephoning us on 1800 529 522.

Lawlab will never send Rundl users our bank account details by email. If you receive a suspicious contact from someone claiming to be linked to your transaction, consider asking the person some historical questions about the transaction to help you confirm that they are who they say they are.

Being vigilant with online security is extremely important and following the precautions in this article will help you complete your conveyancing transaction securely with Lawlab.

Richie Muir

Legal Director

Richie is an experienced and commercially astute lawyer specialising in property law. He leads lawlab’s team of legal advisors and is the go-to problem solver for complex or unusual matters.  Having spent many years living and studying in Europe he now calls Brisbane home. Outside of work he juggles his time helping bring up his 2 young daughters, playing football and developing property.