Nikki Hart had been working towards home ownership for years.
After being knocked back from property after property, the single mother-of-one thought she had finally managed to secure her own place.
But it was an elaborate scam.
Ms Hart said she received an email requesting a 1 per cent deposit to secure a Sunshine Coast property after she had put an offer on it through a real estate website.
"It was a $4,000 deposit … if I didn't like the property once I signed the contract or something had fallen through, I would get that refund back," she said.
Ms Hart arranged a time to inspect the property with her parents and daughter Poppy and sent the $4,000.
But she realised something was amiss when she arrived at the property at the agreed time.
"I turned up to the property only to find that there was no real estate agent there waiting for us," she said.
She called the agent's office and was told there was no inspection scheduled for that day.
The agent said they hadn't received any communication from her and had never requested a deposit.
Ms Hart said she then realised she had been scammed.
'I started crying straight away'
"Being a single parent, $4,000 is a lot of money, I've been saving for so long," Ms Hart said.
Fortunately, the bank was able to trace the money and return it to Ms Hart's account.
She said she wanted to warn others to be extra vigilant online.
"I'd be ringing the agent directly to prevent this from happening to anyone else, especially single parents or families out there who are trying to get themselves a roof over their head," she said.
She said it was especially hard on Poppy.
"My daughter's very upset now," she said.
"We're back to square one, and I reassured her we're going to get a house and I don't have a house for her unfortunately … it's very upsetting for us all."
Real estate agents on mission to help
Keyline Realty principal Andrew Hicks said his team members were doing everything they could to help Ms Hart secure a property.
Mr Hicks said potential buyers should be wary of requests for a deposit before they had looked at properties.
"We certainly would never do it ever … [and] I've never heard of any other agency doing it either, I don't believe anyone would," Mr Hicks said.
It remained unclear how the hackers gained access to Ms Hart's communications.
Mr Hicks said the agency had the "highest level of security you can get", with the team's IT department unable to find any breaches in their systems.
He said the real estate website had contacted him and were also unable to find any signs of a breach on their end.
ID Care managing director David Lacey said he was not surprised to see scammers targeting the property market.
"Pretty much anything that the market is demanding, whether it be caravans or property or technology, criminals will try and incentivise people to respond," Professor Lacey said.
"The ability to flood the market with scam communications has never been so easy for scammers."
He said Ms Hart did "all the right things" by making her own enquiries and organising to inspect the property.
He said ID Care advised people not to react or respond to requests for money without first taking extra steps to confirm the communication was legitimate.
"If you do that, 90 per cent of what we see in terms of scam victimisation, wouldn't occur," he said.
"And often, if the price is too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true."
