Mar 17, 2021

102-year-old resident scammed out of $375,000 in aged care email hack

An old elderly disabled asian in wheelchair with her young Asian woman talks video chat on the smart phone with her family in her house

A 102-year-old aged care resident has been tricked out of $375,000 after hackers posed as the operators of an aged care home and persuaded her family to transfer money into their account.

The funds came from proceeds of the family home in Ferndale, Perth, which Alice Pun had bought with her husband when they moved from Hong Kong more than 40 years ago. 

The home was being sold to pay for Alice’s aged care accommodation.

Alice’s daughter Phoebe Pun, who has enduring power of attorney for her grandmother, was organising the transfer of the funds from the sale for the home.

But it appears the scammers intercepted an email between Phoebe and the aged care home and sent a bogus email posing as someone from the nursing home, and advising of a change of bank account details for the transfer following the sale of the property. 

Phoebe sent these bank account details to the settlement agent, and the proceeds from the sale of the property of $374,251 were transferred to the scammers’ bank account. 

When the operator of the home said they had not received the funds, Phoebe realised she was the victim of a scam. She told the ABC the discovery made her feel “like all the blood was draining out of me.”

“I just went cold. Just shock. ‘Oh my god. What’s just happened. No way, this can’t be happening.’ I’m so careful. But clearly, I could be more careful,” Phoebe told the ABC.

A top-up amount of $749 that Phoebe also deposited into the fake account has been retrieved. However, the larger amount remains unaccounted for.

Scammers target property transactions

The Western Australian government’s Consumer Protection division believes Phoebe was the victim of a ‘payment redirection’ or ‘man in the middle’ scam.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Lanie Chopping, in a statement said she is concerned about the rising number of redirection scams, many of which target large property transactions.

“These scams involve the hacking into someone’s email account or computer system but it can be difficult to determine exactly where the hack has occurred,” Chopping said.

“The hackers may have successfully guessed the password or installed spyware or malware on computers or laptops after recipients open attachments or click on links in scam emails.

“Choosing a difficult-to-guess password and changing them often can reduce the risk of being hacked, and not opening attachments or links in suspicious emails is essential in keeping computers secured. 

“Businesses should train their staff to be scam aware,” Chopping said.

Unsecured WiFi connections at home or in public places may also provide scammers with a “window of opportunity”, Chopping revealed. 

“With many people working from home at the moment, they need to ensure that a secured network is being used and they have up-to-date virus-protection software.”

Email scams common in Australia

According to the government service Scamwatch, email scams are not uncommon in Australia. In 2021 alone, more than $7 million has been lost to scams delivered by email.

Overall, in 2021, nearly $43 million has been lost to scams.

Investigations ongoing

Alice moved into the aged care home last year, but the scam puts a question mark over the  funding of her care in the future.

HelloCare approached Opal Health Care about the incident, but they were unable to comment due to their privacy obligations to the resident.

The family has decided not to tell Alice what has happened because they want to avoid worrying her. She continues to live at the home, and is happy.

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