Latest news with #housedeposit
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Shock update after Aussie family lost 15 years of savings when their $250,000 house deposit was stolen in sophisticated email scam
A Gold Coast family scammed out of their $250,000 house deposit has received a major lifeline after ANZ agreed to fully reimburse the stolen funds. Sarah and Laine Robinson unknowingly transferred their entire life savings to scammers posing as their conveyancer just days before settlement on their dream rural home in Mount Nathan. 'We honestly can't believe it,' Sarah told A Current Affair. 'We've had a phone call from ANZ, and they agreed to reimburse the money.' The couple had spent 15 years saving for their dream property and were packed up and ready to move with their three children when the scam unfolded. The nightmare began when, as settlement approached, the conveyancing firm the couple had been working with suddenly went silent. Unknown to the Robinsons, scammers had intercepted the email chain and began impersonating the firm. The fraudulent emails looked nearly identical to legitimate correspondence, but had one subtle red flag, the sender's email was missing a simple '.au' at the end. 'I was talking to the scammers for a week-and-a-half without knowing,' Sarah said. Trusting the instructions, the Robinsons visited an ANZ branch to make the payment. There, the teller failed to notice that the account name didn't match the details. 'They can see that they were at fault on that day,' Sarah said. 'Their staff member failed to do appropriate checks and failed to protect us.' The scam was only uncovered the day before settlement, when the real conveyancer contacted them. While the firm had received the first $60,000, the second and much larger payment of $252,000 was missing. ANZ was initially able to recover around $80,000, but the remaining $170,000 was gone. The bank has now stepped in and reimbursed the full amount. The heartwarming update comes after Australian Financial Complaints Authority had previously cleared the ANZ of wrongdoing, a finding the couple have criticised. Despite this, ANZ made the decision to cover the full loss. The couple are now urging other scam victims not to give up hope. 'If you can see you can see you've done the right thing, keep fighting. You can have a positive outcome, we are living proof that can happen,' they said. The family is now back on the market, hoping to finally find a new dream home. ANZ said it would take action to help protect its customers against scams and fraud, including business email compromise and invoice scams like this one. 'We invest in ongoing education, detection systems, and recovery efforts to support our customers. The extent and pace of change in the scams landscape has evolved significantly, as perpetrators become increasingly sophisticated,' a statement said. 'We will continue to adapt our protective measures and encourage customers to stay alert, stay informed, and act swiftly on anything suspicious.'
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
OzLotto winner comes forward to claim massive prize
A young Aussie thought he was the victim of a prank call from a friend last week, only to realise minutes later he'd just become $250,000 richer. Tristan, a 22-year-old from Canberra, was looking at his phone last Thursday night while waiting for his UberEats order to arrive when he received a call. It was Oz Lotteries host Sarah Butler calling him to let him know he won a quarter of a million dollars. 'I thought it was one of my housemates' pranks,' Tristan told Oz Lotteries. When he realised it wasn't his friend, he ran downstairs to his housemate and put the phone on speaker. 'My housemate stood up and screamed, before giving me a hug,' he said. 'None of us know anyone who's won money like this. It doesn't feel real.' Tristan said he would head to a financial advisor before using his winnings to enter the housing market, which brought his mother to tears. 'I don't want to mess it up,' he said. 'The goal is a house deposit, that's it. If I play this right, it changes everything.' The young man's mother also couldn't believe the luck her son had received and became emotional because of what it would mean for his future. 'Mum almost cried when she realised this means I will be able to buy a house,' Tristan said. 'My generation can't get into the housing market. She never thought her son would be able to buy a house.' Tristan was flown to Brisbane to watch the money be directly transferred into his account from the Oz Lotteries Toowong headquarters. It was the biggest Daily Winners cash giveaway, and the ACT man said that his 'hands were so sweaty' and that he 'barely slept a wink' while thinking about the big win as he made his way up north to receive his prize.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
What would REALLY happen if you didn't buy a daily coffee and saved the money instead?
The price of a takeaway coffee has soared in recent years. Some towns, especially those in and around London, have already seen the price of a takeaway coffee nudge beyond £4 and experts say we're just three years away from the £5 cup of coffee becoming the norm. And in the past decade, it has been repeated time and time again: 'Stop buying coffees out and you might actually be able to save some money' - or better yet, it's the answer to saving for a house deposit... second only to ditching the avocados. Now, savings platform Flagstone has crunched the numbers to see if the debate stacks up. It says the average daily spend on a takeaway coffee is £3.40, amounting to £102 a month. This is based on buying a takeaway coffee every day (not just the regular working week). If the money was diverted each month into a savings account and compounded annually at an interest rate of 4.5 per cent, it could add up to nearly £7,000 over five years. Putting £102 a month into a savings account compounding annually at 4.5 per cent over five years would grow to £6,849. This assumes that each monthly deposit earns interest at 4.5 per cent annually for five-years. The magic of compound interest, branded the eight wonder of the world by Albert Einstein, is to partly to thank for this. Compounding is the addition, repeatedly, of interest to the principal amount of a deposit. It describes what happens when you earn interest on both the money you initially deposit in a savings account, plus the interest you have already earned on that starting amount. If the same tactic was adopted for money spent on regular nights out, it could prove even more lucrative when it comes to helping to build up a savings pot. The average person splashes out £317 on nights out a month, according to Flagstone, making it one of the biggest black holes in monthly finances. If this sum were redirected monthly into a savings account instead, it would grow to £21,285 over the five years. The second highest earnings opportunity could come from doing more housework yourself and putting the money you would have spent on a cleaner into a savings account. While having a cleaner can save time, spending on cleaners rose by 9.4 per cent last year, driven by increases to the national living wage. Currently, the average monthly cleaning cost is £150. If this money was saved instead - and compounded at 4.5 per cent interest - you could earn an extra £10,072 after five years. People spend around on £237 average a month on meal kits, meal deals and takeaways. Putting this money into a high-interest savings account instead would save £15,914 over five years in a 4.5 per cent savings account. While cancelling subscriptions Subscriptions to Disney +, Amazon Prime, Audible and Apple TV and funnelling what you would save from this into a high-interest account would save between £536 and £537, per subscription, over five years. The table below allows you to see the daily spend, monthly spend and finally, how much it would save you over five years. If you were to stop spending on all of the above, you could save £76,479, if you placed the savings into a savings account offering 4.5 per cent interest. This figure relies on saving across all categories above. This is well over the average deposit on a new home, which is now around £53,414 Savers can currently get easy-access accounts payng 4.75 per cent, but this is likely to fall over the next six months as the Bank of England base rate is prediced to fall. Claire Jones, head of strategic relationships and new dusiness at Flagstone said: 'Spending on common items like nights out and coffees might not seem to have a huge impact on your bank balance. 'But reducing outgoings and redirecting that money to high-interest savings accounts could prove lucrative for individuals keen to focus on their wealth goals.'
