Real estate listings portal Domain has been hit with a phishing attack that saw a third party accessing personal information, and contacting potential renters asking for deposits.
Domain is 65 per cent owned by Nine Entertainment, who suffered a cyber attack in March.
“We have identified a scam that used a phishing attack to gain access to Domain’s administrative systems to engage with people who have made rental property enquiries,” Chief Executive Jason Pellegrino said in an email.
“We understand the scammers then contacted some of these people by email to suggest that they pay a ‘deposit’ to secure a rental property on a website nominated by the scammer. Importantly, we have had no reports made by an individual directly to Domain who had fallen for the scam.
“There is a risk that some of your personal information may have been accessed by an unauthorised third party that has obtained access to Domain’s systems as a result of a scam targeting one of our systems. It is not yet clear how many users were affected by the scam.
“We appreciate this can be concerning information to hear, and we are sorry for any stress or negative impact this causes you,” Pellegrino continued.
“Unfortunately, since COVID, scams like these have been on the rise. It is disappointing for us to find out that after such a challenging past twelve months for many of us some see this as an opportunity to take advantage of others.”
