Helpful Info

Buying a home is supposed to be an exciting time. However, the very nature of real estate transactions—large amounts of money transferring between parties—makes them a prime target for criminals. Increasingly, financial institutions and home buyers are falling victim to wire transfer scams connected to real estate closings. According to a warning issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of fraudulent wire transfer scams reported by title companies and closing agents to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center increased by 480 percent in 2016. This type of fraud was reported in all 50 states. What makes this type of scam so enticing to criminals and easy to pull off is the nature of the real estate closing process, which is often hurried, and the fact that email is a commonly used method for providing legitimate instructions for sending funds at closing. Here is how the fraud works:

• A fraudster hacks into a title company, realtor or lender’s email server or computer system to search for upcoming real estate closings; and
• The fraudster then emails the buyer or financial institution with bogus wire-transfer instructions related to a particular real estate loan closing.

The buyer or financial institution then follows the bogus instructions to generate the wire transfer request. Once the funds are sent, the criminal moves on. Unfortunately, this fraud is usually only discovered when the title company or closing agent informs the buyer or financial institution that they did not received the anticipated funds.

*** Mark A. Violette, P.A. will call the Buyer directly in the event our wiring instructions change.  Do not follow amended wiring instructions without contacting Mark A. Violette, P.A. first or you may risk losing your funds. ***