Cybercrime has spiked since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Interpol. Criminals are taking advantage of the weaknesses in corporate and government security protocols as the number of employees suddenly having to work remotely on less-secure home computers and WI-FI networks spikes. And the real estate industry has not escaped unscathed.
The property sector is often misused by criminals, as it presents options in which to hide the source, disposal and use of their illicit proceeds. Chas Everitt International says it recently spent more than R300 000 to implement new digital signature security measures to help protect its customers and business partners from online fraud.
In July Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) called on the industry to guard against of being vulnerable to abuse by criminals for purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing, by adopting a risk based approach, and to report any suspicious concerns, as require.
"Estate agents can help mitigate the risk of being misused by criminals by fulfilling their FIC Act obligations while at the same time, strengthening their sector."
READ | How estate agents can combat fraud and money laundering risks
Berry Everitt, CEO of the Chas Everitt International property group, says while the group already had a complete digital business eco-system in place, the new measures include a WhatsApp link that enables the person receiving an email from a Chas Everitt agent to immediately check the legitimacy of the email, and its digital signature via a separate, encrypted digital platform.
“This means, for example, that if you receive an email from us regarding your transaction, you can immediately WhatsApp the agent with a request for them to call you and confirm that the email did indeed come from them, and that the contents are correct. We will of course also never send you an email asking for payment or requesting you to pay money into someone else’s bank account, and will also never ask you for any passwords, PINs or OTP numbers," says Everitt.
Raising the red flag
“Meanwhile, Interpol also expects cybercrime to continue to increase in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we want to all our stakeholders and customers to become more cautious of the dangers, so our second new feature is a scrolling ‘flag’ beneath the digital signature that continuously presents useful reminders of what recipients can do to avoid becoming victims of cybercrime.”
PODCAST | POPI Act Compliance for Real Estate Practitioners
He says the real estate value chain is unfortunately an obvious target for cybercriminals all over the world, due to the fact that it always has multiple parties interacting with each other to complete a transaction, and thus offers a much greater possibility of there being a weak point that is easily exploited than a process controlled by one company on one digital network.
“Real estate transactions also often involve the transfer of relatively large sums of money – from buyers to attorneys, for example, or from banks to attorneys, and attorneys to estate agencies. Being able to siphon this cash off to a dummy account at any stage of the transaction is thus likely to prove quite lucrative for cybercriminals – and we are aware that there have already been a few cases of this happening in South Africa,” adds Everitt.
Read SABRIC Fraud Awareness for ATM do's and dont's plus tips for protecting your pin and cash
“Fortunately” says Everitt, “in building our eco-system we have always been aware that a dispersed network which our staff, agents and managers can plug into via any number of computers, laptops and smartphones is potentially more vulnerable to cybercrime than a closed corporate system, and we had already also built in very robust security protocols.
“However, lockdown presented us with a new challenge; the fact that many of the other people and companies we need to interact with to facilitate a property sale were suddenly also having to work remotely – without having had the chance to really think about their cybersecurity. This magnified the risk of a breach somewhere along the value chain – and of financial loss to our customers – which we are now mitigating with the new security features on our digital signatures.
“We are also working closely with all our business associates including banks, bond originators and attorneys, to ensure that we all co-ordinate our cybersecurity efforts and make the value chain as watertight as possible.”
