Criminals Steal House Thanks To Hacked Email

mask.of.sanity writes with this quote from ZDNet: "An international cybercrime investigation is underway into a sophisticated scam network that used email and fax to sell an Australian man's AU$500,000 property without his knowledge. The man was overseas when the Nigerian-based scammers stole his credentials and amazingly sold two houses through his real estate agent. He rushed home and prevented the sale of his second home from being finalized. Australian Federal Police and overseas law enforcement agencies will investigate the complex scam, which is considered the first of its kind in Australia. It is alleged scammers had stolen the man's email account and personal property documents to sell the houses and funnel cash into Chinese bank accounts. Investigating agencies admit the scammers hoodwinked both the selling agents and the government, and said they had enough information to satisfy regulatory requirements. The police did not rule out if the scammers had links to the man."

Comments

Integrity of house sales system

[Wowsers]

Here in the UK for as long as it's been, you used to get the deeds to a house when you bought it / paid off the mortgage. It is basically a printed piece of paper which tells you the details of the house, like boundary rights or restrictions, and who is the owner of the house. When under a mortgage, you can see that the mortgage company's details are used as the owner. This document gets updated whenever the property is sold or a mortgage is obtained against it.

Now a few years ago, these documents which you HAD as the ultimate proof you own your home became a museum piece, and now the only proof that you own the property is an electronic record in the Land Registry.

Unfortunately these electronic records have already been tampered with, and people have lost their homes because the government decided to trust a computer, rather than have the backup of who has the deeds to the property.

There was an article in the BBC TV news about the scam, and just how easy it is. This is what you get when you have easily bought politicians who think the answer to everything is a bloody computer system.