Realtors®, real estate brokers, closing attorneys, buyers and sellers are targets for wire fraud and many have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because they simply relied on the wire instructions received via email.
A fraudster will hack into a participant’s email account to obtain information about upcoming real estate transactions. After monitoring the account to determine the likely timing of a closing, the fraudster will send an email to the buyer purporting to be the escrow agent or another party to the transaction. The fraudulent email will contain new wiring instructions or routing information, and will request that the buyer send funds to a fraudulent account.
We are urging everyone to INQUIRE BEFORE YOU WIRE and to never rely solely on email communication. Always follow these two simple steps:
