An Australian couple who bought a new Mercedes Benz could end up paying twice for the car after scammers intercepted their payments totaling $139,000.
Wendy Angliss and Derrick Thompson now face a legal battle over four transfers for a new GLE 400d SUV in February and March 2023.
Ms Angliss and Mr Thompson have taken legal action in the Victorian County Court against the German carmaker after hackers manipulated emailed invoices and changed the bank account number in a PDF.
The couple transferred $40,000 three times and $19,000 once to an account they were supposed to use.
They believed it belonged to Mercedes-Benz’s Geelong dealer.
Wendy Angliss and Derrick Thompson now face a legal battle over four transfers for a new GLE 400d SUV in February and March 2023
Ms Angliss and Mr Thompson claim they would not have made the transfers if they had provided real account details. Nine newspapers reported.
They claim that Mercedes-Benz’s conduct breached Australian consumer law.
“Had the plaintiffs been advised that the initial transfer had been made to an incorrect account, they would have taken steps to recover the payment,” their summons states.
They claim there was no way to tell the fake invoice had been changed.
But the car dealer never received the money and filed a countersuit, arguing that the couple breached a contract to purchase the vehicle because they failed to complete the purchase.
The couple was defrauded in a growing form of fraud known as an invoice scam, where hackers create fake bills to intercept payments.
Mercedes-Benz is insisting on payment of the $139,000 the scammers received.
The case will now be heard in the Victorian County Court
The automaker is also demanding a trade-in vehicle worth $17,292.47, which would be part of the deal with Ms. Angliss and Mr. Thompson.
Mercedes-Benz admitted that its employee had received four emails from the couple saying the transfers had been made, but had not contacted them for a week to say nothing had been received.
But it denied it owed a duty of care to the couple and argued Mrs Angliss had contributed to the problems by not having adequate IT or password security.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Mercedes-Benz for comment.
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