A British expat hoping to buy a home in Australia suffered his worst nightmare after losing $50,000 to scammers and only getting $1,800 back from his bank. Lewis Pentelow, who lives in Sydney, was trying to secure his first home in August 2025 when he unknowingly transferred his deposit to a scammer. Mr Pentelow told Yahoo he double and triple checked the account details of his conveyancer, before transferring the funds from his ING savings account. 'Like all banks, recovery outcomes depend on how rapidly scammers move funds and whether other institutions can return them.' In 2024, Aussies lost more than $2billion in scams, according to the Australian Government's latest Targeting Scams Report.

Source: Daily Mail February 02, 2026 01:35 UTC