Mortgage news archive 1

Online Bandits. Millions lost in electronic banking scam. FRONT PAGE, The Daily Telegraph, 20th July 2002 : Kara Lawrence , Police Reporter

Major security flaws in Internet and telephone banking  in major banks have been exposed by a scheme which has seen millions of dollars stolen from customers accounts. New South Wales police have launched a wide ranging investigation into reports of funds being stolen from the accounts of more than a hundred bank customers across New South Wales since February this year. Individual customers have lost up to $150,000 each. Strike force Windrush headed by Detective inspector Michael Gerondis from Crime agencies has identified a crime ring rorting the BPay system.

BPay is an initiative by the major banks to encourage their customers to pay their bills by the internet or telephone banking..

Is it time to refinance your mortgage with Mr Mortgage? www.mrmortgage.com.au

Early stages of the investigation has centred on a staff member from one major bank, who allegedly accepted money for disclosing customer's confidential account information.

The man who worked in a Western Sydney Bank branch was arrested on Thursday on two charges relating to obtaining and supplying data with intent to facilitate a serious computer offence...

Lending fall bad news for builders. The Daily Telegraph, 13th July 2002 :

Builders urge the Reserve Bank of Australia to leave interest rates on hold next month after more signs yesterday that the housing sector was losing steam. Figures showed lending for new homes slipped 0.5% in may to 5,554 homes in May from January's peak of nearly 8,000 homes........

Debt fret and the pain of repaying'  The Weekend Australian  6-7th of July 2002: Teresa Ooi.   How much debt is too much?

Its one of the questions on the minds of reserve bank Board members who came under pressure again this week over their interest rate policy. Most commentators say we are already knee deep in debt. A massive $335.6 Billion in home loans, and another $20.3 Billion on our credit cards is quite enough thanks....

Trust in Property when stocks choke.

Listed Property trusts have been the star performers over the last two years. The Weekend Australian  20-21st of July 2002: 

The S & P/ ASX 300 property trust index showed a 15.2% return in combined capital growth and dividends over the year to June 30th, 2002.The equivalent measure for Australian Shares overall was 4.5%.........

Shares or bricks and mortar  The Weekend Australian  13-14th of July 2002: Teresa Ooi.   Its the investment dilemma from hell.

In today's economic climate its is even harder to get the right answer. Should you put your savings in property or go for shares? Research out this week shows that property has made a dramatic return to popularity despite the Reserve bank's attempt to throttle it. One in four investors says an ING Melbourne Institute Household savings report, intend to use their spare money to buy an investment unit or house........

Grant greed. Now 48 cheats have taken money designed to help battling first home buyers FRONT PAGE, The Homeowners rorting the home owners assistance grant [first home owners grant] have been forced to pay back more than $350,000 after special investigators have uncovered widespread fraud. At least 48 people have been made to pay back the $7,000 grant after the compliance checks involving door knocks by auditors found that they had illegally received the grant. There are also several hundred home buyers under investigation for failing to live in the property nominated-a non negotiable condition of the hand out.......