How a Westpac staff member saved Peter from losing $1.2 million

The diligence of a Westpac staff member saved Peter Smith* from losing $1.2 million after her call to double-check his payment transfer revealed Smith had been scammed.

He was buying a new property through a conveyancer he had used before and trusted, when the conveyancer’s email account was compromised by cyber criminals.

“He had used the conveyancer before and was settling on a property, so he was anticipating an email from her with instructions on transferring money for the settlement,“ Westpac Private Wealth banker Diane Zhou said.

“He received the anticipated email with payment instructions from his conveyancer, which reflected previous emails from her.

“He was busy and had assured me that the details sent from his conveyancer were legitimate — received via an email from the conveyancer’s correct email address, at about the right time just before the settlement date.”

While Smith was confident as to the legitimacy of the email, Zhou offered to call the conveyancer directly to check the details for him.

This offer to help ultimately saved Smith from losing $1.2 million.

“When I spoke with the conveyancer, I was shocked to learn that she had never sent the client an email with payment instructions, and the bank account details provided in the email were not hers,” Zhou said.

“I was then even more shocked that she was aware several fraudulent emails had been circulating, impersonating her office — indicating her emails were compromised.”

Zhou and Smith have now urged people to double-check details before transferring any money, even if received from a trusted source.

“This near miss highlights the importance of doing due diligence and verifying payment details with the recipient from a publicly sourced phone number before actioning any transfer of money,” Zhou said.

“I am pleased that I was able to help protect my client’s money — and hope by telling people about this story that we save others from losing money to scams.”

Westpac data shows while payment redirection scams are the fifth most common scam, they accounted for the second-highest losses by dollar amount over the past year.

On average, victims of these scams lose $27,500 each.

“Businesses and individuals are equally at risk of falling victim to payment redirection scams,” Westpac’s Head of Fraud Prevention Ben Young said.

“It really can happen to anyone.”

Westpac has seen a 20 per cent reduction in payment redirection scams over the past year, and now prevents over 400 mistaken payments a day following the June launch of Westpac Verify.

Westpac Verify enables individuals and businesses to run a check on payee details before initiating payments, alerting them to potential account number and name mismatches.

Young warned that you can never be too careful.

“Our advice is to always verify any banking information verbally over the phone when you receive requests for new, urgent or redirected payments, and ensure you verify through a phone number you have sourced yourself,” he said.

“You can also request to pay your suppliers using a PayID, (which) display the registered payee name, so if it’s not your intended recipient, you will know.”

Westpac has launched an awareness campaign to bring attention to payment redirection scams and prevent further losses.

Business owners are invited to join a scams webinar hosted by Young on December 4.

Interested attendees can register on the Westpac website.

*The customer’s name has been changed for privacy