Posted by 
A Queensland family have lost their entire house deposit and their new home after unknowingly falling victim to a sophisticated mortgage scam.
A fraudulent email, posing as their conveyancer, robbed Sarah and Laine Robinson of a quarter of a million dollars.
The Benowa couple thought they were being safe with their money when they transferred their $300,000 deposit for their dream home to their conveyancer in person at the bank.
Unknowingly, the majority of those funds, slid directly into a scam account and cost them their Mount Nathan property.
“We purchased it, we thought we had, and the day before settlement, it was gone,” Sarah told 9News
“$250,000 was transferred, that was lost.”
In a sea of legitimate emails, a well-disguised phishing fraud slipped through the cracks, the only distinguishable flaw was the “dot AU” missing from the end of the email address.
“If they [the bank] had said, ‘hey, listen, let’s contact where the money’s going to and let’s double check these details’ none of this would have happened,” Laine claimed.
The Gold Coast couple are not the only ones to fall victim to such a scam.
Just weeks ago, Brisbane pair Christine and David Rose were defrauded $40,000 in an almost identical scam.
“It had the same banners down the bottom, the same email signature, everything,” Christine told 9News.
The Robinsons’ bank was able to recover $80,000 for the couple said they refused to reimburse the total amount they lost.
They are now hoping their story will help spread the word and save others a similar heartbreak.
“We’ve worked so hard for the last 20 years to get to this point and it’s all for nothing,” Sarah said.
“Call and confirm everything that they send you, call and confirm, ‘Is that from you? Is this real?'”
