Three people have been arrested and charged by South African police after an attempted fraudulent sale of a home in Western Australia.
Two Nigerian men, Magnus Ikechukwu Kamah, 38, and Nbubusi Sunday Okeke, 34, and South African woman Asanda Zimkhitha Cwayi, 28, were arrested in Johannesburg on Wednesday following a five-month police investigation.
They were charged with fraud, forgery and uttering.
In mid-February, a Mandurah real estate agency that was managing a Greenfields property on behalf of its South African owner received an email from the accused, who allegedly pretended to be the real owner and duped the agency into changing the contact email address it had on file.
Two weeks later, a request to sell the property was received, and agreements were signed with allegedly forged signatures and exchanged electronically.
The property was then put on the market.
In March, an offer was made on the property and accepted by the pretend owner, police allege.
On receiving the offer, the agency mailed documents to the real owner's address in South Africa.
While the email address had been changed, the physical address on file had not, so the real owner raised the alarm.
WA Major Fraud Squad detectives worked with the real estate agency, a settlement agent and South African police to apprehend the three suspects.
They are due to appear in a Johannesburg court on Friday.
WA commissioner for consumer protection Anne Driscoll said two successful and six attempted real estate frauds had been reported to the government unit in the past six years and seven had involved owners in South Africa. The other resided in Nigeria.
Ms Driscoll urged real estate and settlement agents faced with a request to change an owner's contact details to seek confirmation by sending a notification to the original address, both physical and electronic.
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