A startling report has revealed sophisticated scams are robbing homebuyers and sellers out of huge amounts of money, despite increased efforts by authorities to catch con artists.

In one reported instance, a woman who purchased an investment property lost $440,000 when hackers infiltrated her solicitor’s email and changed the settlement account details.

In another, an elderly woman sold her home to fund a deposit on her new residence in an aged care property, but the facility fell victim to a similar hack that saw her $370,000 life savings lost.

A number of high-value property transactions have been infiltrated by sophisticated scammers. Picture: Getty

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Both are examples of so-called ‘payment redirection’ scams, which accounted for the second-highest amount of losses last year.

Figures released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission show a record $2 billion was lost to a variety of scams in 2021, with payment redirection cons fleecing victims of $227 million - up sharply on the $128 million in reported losses in 2020.

The report, Targeting Scams, compiles data from ScamWatch, ReportCyber, major financial institutions, payment processers, and government agencies, analysing more than 560,000 individual reports.

ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said a record number of Australians lost a record number of money to dodgy dealers last year.

“Scammers are the most opportunistic of all criminals,” Ms Rickard said.

“The true cost of scams is more than a dollar figure, as they also cause serious emotional harm to individuals, families, and businesses.”

Payment redirection scams account for the second-highest value of losses in 2021. Picture: Getty

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Another devastating payment redirection scam last year saw a couple lost more than $700,000 when their mortgage broker’s email was hacked.

“This person pretended to be our mortgage broker by intercepting emails and assuring me where to transfer my funds… to ensure a smooth settlement process,” the victim told the ACCC.

“Turns out the account was not where the bank wanted the money to go, and our broker knew nothing about his email being written by the scammer and not him.

“We had no idea… now we’ve lost our life savings and cannot settle on our new home.”

In the case of the elderly woman whose life savings vanished, the hacker’s email contained detailed information with a breakdown of fees and advice on how to pay.

Proceeds from the sale of her family home were sent to what the woman’s granddaughter believed was the aged care home’s bank but turned out to be a scammer’s account.

Financial institutions alone received a staggering 98,484 reports about payment redirection scams last year. 

Source: Targeting Scams report

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For all types of cons, the Targeting Scams report reveals that women reported the most scams in 2021, but men lost more money – losses by male victims were double that of women.

People aged over 65 had the highest losses, the report found. People with disabilities accounts for twice as many reports last year compared to 2020.

The ACCC is calling for financial institutions to adopt payee confirmation practices, which have been effective overseas.

Ms Rickard urged those engaging in financial transactions to double-check payment details and be vigilent for anything that might raise a red flag.

“If you have received a request that creates a sense of urgency, don’t rush. Take the time to consider and check whether an email is real, including by looking carefully at the sender’s email address, before acting on instructions.

“Whenever there is a request to change payment details, always check with the organisation using stored contact details, rather than those in the requesting communication.

“It can be difficult to recover money lost to a payment redirection scam, so prevention is really important.”

People who encounter a scam, whether they fall victim to it or not, should report it to ScamWatch via their website.