Cassie and Dennis Aviles handed over $1.1 million to who they believed was their solicitor in order to finalise the sale of their new house.
“It’s basically everything,” Ms Aviles said.
“I’ve gone to the branch and transferred all of our money and who they are now telling us is in some kind of scam account and they’re not sure if they’re going to be able to retrieve it for us,” she said.
The couple, who have three young children, had sold their Beacon Hill property and were due to complete settlement on the new house next week.
Yesterday morning, they received what appeared to be a completely legitimate email from their solicitor instructing them to transfer the large sum of money.
“[The email had] his name, his business name and all of the contracts we’ve signed for the new property were all attached,” a distraught Ms Aviles said.
Ms Aviles alerted her solicitor that she’d paid the money into what she thought was the firm’s Commonwealth Bank account.
“He yelled into the phone call the bank straight away.”
The Aviles’ solicitor, Tanveer Khan, is just as baffled as the couple as to how the scammer has obtained the information.
“I’ve never even heard of anything like that,” Mr…
