Another celebrity has fallen victim to the cunning cyber scam that almost cost NRL legend Ben Elias a fortune. One of the Real Housewives of Sydney has narrowly avoided losing a rumoured $550,000 to the sophisticated fraudsters.
Ava Benny-Morrison and Brenden Hills, The Sunday Telegraph
A Real Housewives of Sydney star has become the latest celeb to fall victim to a cunning cyber fraud scam.
The cyber attack targeting Krissy Marsh mirrored the $860,000 scam that also caught out footy legend Ben Elias last month.
Unlike Ms Marsh, Mr Elias’s bank managed to track the hefty sum just before it was wired offshore.
According to police sources, the scam involves hackers impersonating legal advisers and sending invoices their clients are already expecting, such as stamp duty payments. The emails look as if they are sent by a law firm with only subtle changes, account details or an email address.
Ms Marsh was targeted during the purchase of a $10 million beachfront home in Queensland’s Noosa.
A hacker sent an email purporting to be from law firm Mills Oakley, which was representing the “property princess”, to Credit Suisse. It is understood Credit Suisse was involved in the financial side of the property deal.
The email requested the mother-of-three pay hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of the settlement.
Snitch understands the sum transferred was about $550,000 but Ms Marsh would not confirm the figure when contacted on Saturday.
“The police are aware of it but I am unable to comment at the moment,” she said.
A Mills Oakley spokesman said “the principle cause of the Marsh incident was a failure by Credit Suisse to identify a fraudulent attempt to impersonate” one of their lawyers.
