Wire Fraud 101
Wire Fraud Basics
It’s no secret that cybercriminals continue to target real estate and our transactions. Two main reasons? The amount of money involved in each deal and many parties involved in a single transaction. After all, it only takes one weak link to endanger everyone.
Furthermore, as much as we talk about this issue among ourselves, these warnings aren’t resonating enough with our buyers/sellers or the public at large. While the Fortune Title team does everything we can to spread awareness about this issue, we wanted to make sure to have a dedicated space for this important information on this site, too.
If you’re a fellow real estate professional, it’s important to work with partners who care about security and safety as much as you do. Fortune Title is dedicated to doing what we can to better protect our customers and their transactions.
It’s why we’re always ready to talk about these ever-evolving schemes. Here are the three most common scams we’re seeing right now, but it’s important to know that scammers are always evolving. Remember, if something seems off, it probably is. Our wiring instructions will never change when you work with Fortune Title.
Wire fraud: This is the type of scam we’ve talked about for years. Often done through email hacking and phishing, this is a well-known scam that is often conducted using Business Email Compromise (BEC). Cybercriminals hack the email account of anyone involved in the real estate transaction and then try to convince a buyer to send their funds to a new account, usually at the last minute and very urgently. It’s why it’s important to remind buyers that wiring instructions rarely change – whether you’re working with Fortune Title or any other title company in the country. Such frantic requests should raise suspicions and be verified by a trusted source.
Mortgage payoff scams: Like wire fraud, criminals attempt to trick parties involved in the transaction to divert the money earmarked to pay off an involved mortgage into their own accounts. Fortune Title proudly uses CertifID to help guard against wire fraud and this type of scam.
Seller impersonation: It’s exactly what it sounds like. In fact, sometimes it’s simply called dealing with a fake seller. Scammers find and try to list a property (often vacant lots, second homes or other paid-off properties) that doesn’t belong to them and push for an all-cash sale below value before anyone finds out. This type of scam became popular in 2023 and remains as popular as ever. Fortune Title uses Intellicheck to help verify the seller’s identity in the transaction. If you ever have concerns about the legitimacy of your seller, please let us know, and we’ll work together to solve the mystery before allowing a deal to be finalized.
The bottom line is that fraudsters are always lurking, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Consider these findings from the “2024 State of Wire Fraud Report” from our friends at CertifID.
About a quarter of homebuyers said they received no materials from their real estate agent or title company about the dangers of wire fraud. (We’re on a mission to make sure our customers never fall into this category.)
1 in 4 people said they received some sort of suspicious communication regarding their real estate transaction. Additionally, 10 percent of respondents stated they were a target of a specific fraud attempt.
More than half of people (51%) said they were only somewhat or not aware at all of the dangers of wire fraud before closing.
