Could You Spot A Property Settlement Scam? Over 2 In 5 Australians Can't

Somewhere in Australia this week, a buyer will sit down at their kitchen table, open an email from their settlement agent, and transfer their entire house deposit to a criminal. The email will look right. The name will be right. The timing will be right. Only the bank account will be wrong, and by the time anyone notices, the money will be gone. A scam is the most expensive email you will ever read, and this Scams Awareness Week we want to make sure you never read one. 

Quick Answer: The Short Version

Criminals hack the email account of a real estate agent, conveyancer or solicitor, then email the buyer with their own bank details substituted into the settlement instructions. The buyer transfers the funds believing the request is legitimate. That is a property settlement scam. One step stops it: before you transfer any money, ring your settlement agent on a number you already have, not one printed in the email, and read the account details back to them.

At Osinski Finance, we’ve been helping Perth buyers navigate their home loans and settlement since 2017. This is the point in the process where nerves peak and attention drops, which is exactly what criminals are counting on.

How A Payment Redirection Scam Unfolds 

Banks call this payment redirection. The cybersecurity sector files it under business email compromise. Either way, the mechanics are worth knowing, because at no point in the chain does it look like fraud. It looks like admin. 

Step one: the inbox gets compromised

The Australian Cyber Security Centre confirms these scams usually begin inside the email account of a real estate agent, conveyancer or even a solicitor. Nothing visible happens at this stage. The criminals sit quietly in a legitimate inbox, reading correspondence and learning who is buying what, for how much, and when settlement falls due. 

Step two: the fake instruction arrives

From there they email customers who are partway through buying a property, with the details of their own bank account inserted for the settlement payment. The tone matches the earlier emails. The property address and the figure are both correct. Only the BSB and account number belong to somebody else. 

Step three: the money leaves, and nobody notices

This is the cruellest part of a payment redirection scam. The ACSC says these scams can go unnoticed for weeks, often surfacing only when the agent or conveyancer chases a missing payment. By then the buyer may have lost tens of thousands of dollars, and potentially far more, money earmarked for a place of their own. PEXA, the digital property settlement platform, considers it one of the country’s most financially devastating forms of cybercrime. The reason is simple: scammers can target an entire deposit in a single attack. 

Why These Scams Are Getting Harder To Pick

If you are quietly confident you would spot a dodgy email, the research is not on your side.

A PEXA survey found 42% of Australians couldn't pick the warning signs of a settlement scam when shown a simulated email, and a staggering 99% couldn't spot the use of a fraudulent email address. That is not a failure of intelligence. It is a design feature of the fraud.

Two things stack the odds further. Sophistication, because as PEXA notes, the more polished these operations become, the fewer tells they leave behind. And timing, because criminals strike in the final stages of a purchase, a process most people go through only two or three times in a lifetime. Knowing what is normal makes it easier to spot a scam. Learn how to spot a scam before settlement week. 

Red Flags Worth Memorising Before Settlement

Unlike the broader category of real estate scams, which tend to announce themselves with wild promises or obviously fake listings, settlement fraud hides inside genuine correspondence. The signs are small. 

• A slightly altered email address. One character added, removed or swapped. A .com that used to be .com.au. This is the tell most people miss, so read it character by character rather than glancing at the display name.
• A change to the bank account details. Legitimate account changes midway through a settlement are rare. Treat any change as suspect until you have confirmed it by phone.
• Pressure to pay immediately. Creating a sense of urgency is a common scam tactic, designed to make you act before you can check whether the request is legitimate.
• New contact details in the signature. If a phone number has changed along with the account details, that is not a coincidence.
• A request that arrives out of sequence. An invoice before you expected one, or instructions from a party who has not been part of the email chain until now.

Stop. Check. Protect: The Three Steps That Actually Work

Scamwatch advises three steps, and PEXA explains how each one applies when you are buying property. The sequence matters as much as the steps.

Stop

Pause. If you receive an unexpected request for money, or an unexpected change to payment instructions, that pause is the whole defence. Nothing about a legitimate settlement collapses because you took twenty minutes to make a phone call. 

Check

Verify the payment request independently, either in person or by calling the property professional on a number you already know to be theirs. Do not dial the number listed at the end of the email, because scammers may have inserted their own there too. Many purchases now run through encryption platforms, so while you have the professional on the line, ask whether that option is available to you. 

Protect

Take Confirmation of Payee warnings from your bank seriously. The service tells you when the account name you have entered does not match the name on the receiving account, and at this point in a purchase a mismatch is very unlikely to be a clerical error. The full guidance sits on the Scamwatch Stop. Check. Protect. page. 

What To Do If You Have Already Transferred The Money

If you suspect your settlement funds have gone to the wrong account, act within minutes rather than hours.

1. Call your bank's fraud team immediately and ask them to attempt a recall. Speed decides whether any of the funds can be frozen at the receiving end.
2. Call your settlement agent or conveyancer on a known number and confirm whether the correct funds are still outstanding.
3. Report it to ReportCyber and to Scamwatch. These reports help trace accounts and warn others, and you will usually need a reference for any bank or insurance dispute.
4. Tell your broker and your lender. If a shortfall threatens settlement, your lender needs to know early enough to discuss options such as an extension.
5. Keep everything. Preserve the original email and its headers, the transfer receipt and any phone records.

Where Your Broker Fits Into All Of This

Most homebuyers enjoy a smooth property purchase, and we would rather you spend the week before settlement feeling excited than anxious. Knowing what to expect is also one of the best ways to spot a property settlement scam. When you know who should contact you, when and about what, an unexpected email or payment request is easier to recognise.

If something in your inbox does not match what we have told you to expect, give us a call before taking action. There is no such thing as a silly question in the fortnight before settlement, and a quick check can help you avoid a conveyancing scam or costly payment mistake. It is the same cautious approach that can protect you from this common home buyer trap and underquoting earlier in the process.

Before You Transfer A Cent, Talk To Osinski Finance

These scams succeed on silence. One email nobody queried, one transfer nobody checked, and a deposit that took years to save is gone in an afternoon. The defence costs nothing and takes two minutes, which is worth remembering on the day the request lands, and it feels rude to ask.

Osinski Finance has been guiding Rockingham, Kwinana and Baldivis families into homes since 2017, and we were named the Rockingham Kwinana Chamber of Commerce 2024 SME Business of the Year. Whether you are weighing up home loans, investing in a property or refinancing your home loan, you get a broker who knows your file well enough to tell you in seconds whether an email belongs in it. Our assistance costs you nothing, because the lender pays our commission when we secure your loan.

Got a settlement coming up, or an email you are not sure about? Message us, and we will talk it through with you.

Key Takeaways

• A payment redirection scam targets buyers in the final days before settlement, when the largest single transfer of the purchase is due, and the buyer is least familiar with the process.
• It starts with a compromised email account belonging to a legitimate real estate agent, conveyancer or solicitor, which is why the correspondence reads as genuine.
• 42% of Australians could not identify the warning signs of a settlement scam in a PEXA simulation, and 99% failed to notice a fraudulent email address.
• Urgency, altered email addresses and changed bank details are the three warning signs most worth memorising before settlement week.
• One phone call to a number you already have, made before any transfer, defeats almost every version of this scam.
• If money has already gone, contacting your bank's fraud team within minutes gives the best chance of a recall, followed by reports to ReportCyber and Scamwatch.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are five warning signs of a property settlement scam?

The five worth committing to memory are a slightly altered sender address, a change to bank account details partway through the transaction, pressure to pay urgently, new contact details in the email signature, and a payment request that arrives out of the expected sequence. Any one of them justifies a phone call before you act. The altered address is the hardest to catch, since it often differs by a single character from one you have already corresponded with. Check the full address rather than the display name, every time.

What should you never do if a settlement email asks you to pay a new account?

Never use the contact details in the suspicious email, because scammers routinely replace the phone number in the signature with one they control. Never send a portion of the funds as a test payment, since that only confirms to the criminal that the account works. Never reply to the email to ask whether it is genuine, as the answer will come from the same compromised inbox. Verify by voice on a number you sourced independently, then act.

How does a property settlement actually work?

Settlement is the day ownership legally transfers: your lender advances the loan funds, your own contribution is paid, adjustments for rates and water are settled, and the title passes into your name. Your conveyancer or settlement agent coordinates the exchange, and in most states it now happens on a digital platform rather than across a table. Your part is usually limited to signing documents and transferring your contribution to a designated trust account by an agreed deadline. Because that contribution is one large transfer made under time pressure, it is the point criminals aim at.

Can the bank get my money back after a payment redirection scam?

Sometimes, and speed is almost always the deciding factor. If your bank's fraud team reaches the receiving institution before the funds are withdrawn or moved on, some or occasionally all of the money can be frozen and returned. Once the funds have been dispersed through other accounts, recovery becomes very difficult. Report it within minutes rather than waiting to confirm your suspicion, because a false alarm costs you nothing and a delay can cost everything.

Who is liable if my settlement funds are sent to a scammer?

Liability depends on the facts, including whose email account was compromised, what verification processes were in place, and what warnings you received and acted on. There is no automatic rule that the professional whose inbox was hacked bears the loss, and in many reported cases the buyer has carried it. Because the answer turns on specifics, this is a question for a solicitor rather than a general guide, and we are brokers rather than lawyers. Prevention is far more reliable than recourse.

Does Confirmation of Payee stop settlement scams?

Confirmation of Payee tells you whether the account name you have entered matches the name registered on the receiving account, so it targets the exact mechanism these scams rely on. It is a strong safeguard, but not a substitute for a phone call, because criminals can and do open accounts under names designed to look plausible. Treat a mismatch warning as a hard stop, and the absence of one as reassurance rather than proof.

Can a scammer get into my bank account with just my phone number?

A phone number alone is not usually enough to access an account, though it is a useful starting point because it enables SMS-based phishing and, in some cases, SIM swapping to intercept verification codes. Most account compromises still begin with a stolen password or a convincing fake login page. In a settlement context, the risk is different anyway: the criminal is not trying to get into your account, but to persuade you to send money out of it voluntarily.

How do email accounts get compromised in these scams?

Usually through a reused or weak password exposed in an unrelated data breach, or a phishing email that captures login details on a convincing imitation of a webmail sign-in page. Once inside, the criminal often sets up quiet forwarding rules to monitor correspondence without the account owner noticing, which is why a compromise can sit undetected for weeks. Multi-factor authentication on every email account involved in a property transaction is the single most effective countermeasure.

Is PEXA safe to use for a property settlement?

PEXA is the digital exchange most Australian settlements now run through, and it is considerably more secure than emailing bank details back and forth. The vulnerability in these frauds is rarely the platform. It is the ordinary email correspondence sitting around the edges of it, where a criminal can impersonate a party and redirect a payment that never touches the exchange. Ask your settlement agent which parts of the process run through it and which do not, so you know where the exposure lies.

Are property settlement scams common in Western Australia?

They occur in every state, and WA has produced some of the most serious reported cases, including a buyer who lost approximately $732,000 after criminals intercepted email communications with her settlement agent. Consumer Protection WA and the ACSC have both flagged property-related business email compromise as a rising risk. Perth's active market and rising prices mean the sums involved keep growing, which is what makes the sector attractive to organised fraud. The precautions in this article apply wherever you are buying.

Disclaimer: The content of this article is general in nature and is presented for informative purposes. It is not intended to constitute tax or financial advice, whether general or personal nor is it intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product. It does not take into consideration your personal situation and may not be relevant to your circumstances. Before taking any action, consider your own particular circumstances and seek professional advice. This content is protected by copyright laws and various other intellectual property laws. It is not to be modified, reproduced or republished without prior written consent.