Stay safe from cyberattacks
BY JACOB DOWNS, RAY WHITE HEAD OF INFORMATION SECURITY
Cyber criminals are continuing to evolve the way they target our industry. It’ s important to be aware of what scams are commonly impacting our business and understanding the steps you can take to protect both yourself and your customers.
RAY WHITE QUEENSLAND TEAMS UP WITH NETBALL QUEENSLAND AND THE QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS BY ALEX TILBURY
Ray White Queensland has inked a landmark two-year partnership with the Queensland Firebirds and Netball Queensland.
The partnership will feature active engagement across Netball Queensland competitions and carnivals, reaching clubs, associations, and local communities throughout Queensland with both organisations ' strong emphasis regionally.
The group’ s collaboration with Netball Queensland and the Queensland Firebirds allows us to also step into Australia’ s most popular sport for women and girls.
Under the agreement, Ray White’ s trusted brand will feature prominently on the Firebirds’ 2025 playing uniform during the upcoming Suncorp Super Netball season.
“ Connecting with Queensland’ s netball community is an exciting opportunity for us to offer our services, especially in regional Queensland where both Netball Queensland and Ray White Queensland have a significant presence and ability to service the community,” Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew said.
“ It’ s an exciting time for Queensland with seven years until the 2032 Olympics. We know our best years are ahead of us.”
Read the full story here
What are some of the common scams impacting our businesses?
Payment redirection scams are rife throughout the real estate industry at the moment. This is where a scammer will impersonate a real estate agent conducting a transaction with a client. They will create a very similar email address and start emailing the client pretending to be the agent. They will then provide updated banking details, trying to get the client to deposit funds into the scammer’ s account.
This has also become common in the rental market, with scammers imitating offices and trying to redirect rental payments into scam accounts. In these instances, always prioritise reaching out to our security team early which allows us to notify banks as soon as possible to get the scam accounts shutdown.
Fake enquiry attempts via property portals are also on the rise. These attacks involve a fake enquiry being submitted to agents. They are often very tough to spot as they look legitimate, they are quickly followed up with the attacker requesting that a link or file be opened, which ultimately contains malicious software that will compromise your account.
Unfortunately, there are new scammers and scams coming out daily. They’ re now even sending their scams via post to try and look more legitimate.
How can I help protect our buyers, sellers and renters when they are transacting with us?
It’ s always ideal to verify payments via a second method- don’ t just rely on email. Calling before transacting payments is a great way to reduce risk surrounding the transaction. It’ s good to let our customers know what to expect when they are transacting with us, letting them know who they will be dealing with and what the process involves can help protect them. The more information our customers have, the more secure they’ ll be.
What steps can I take to continue to stay safe?
Business owners should strongly consider getting cyber insurance to protect their business, we are looking to partner with providers to make this easier, so keep an eye out for this in the future. We also have a cyber insurance guide to help make this process easier that is available on Whiteboard.
Ensure you use different passwords for your personal and work accounts. Consider using a password manager( you can reach out to the security team via our Support Portal if you want more information) to easily manage different passwords across your work and personal accounts.
When things go wrong it’ s much worse if you’ re using the same password across all your accounts- it makes it easier for hackers to access your accounts and take everything( including money, identity documents, frequent flyer points, and even take out loans). Pictured above: Giovanni Spinella, Principal, Ray White Townsville; Ben Ramsey, Sales Agent, Ray White Ipswich; Dan Sowden, Principal, Ray White Maroochydore; Tippah Dwan, Player, Queensland Firebirds; Kate Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Netball Queensland and Queensland Firebirds; Mary Cholhok, Player, Queensland Firebirds; Jason Andrew, Chief Executive Officer, Ray White Queensland; Macy Gardner, Player, Queensland Firebirds; Santo Spinella, Principal, Ray White Townsville and Tiera Butkus, Head of Growth, Ray White Queensland.
If you have a password manager, the damage stops at a singular account. Recovering from a hacking attempt can take months and you may never get back what was stolen.
If something looks remotely suspicious suspicious, reach out to the Ray White Support Team through the Support Portal. It only takes one wrong click to cause serious damage to our brand, our customers, and even ourselves.
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