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Protect Yourself Against Wire Fraud At Closing

By
Real Estate Agent with Future Home Realty

So, you found a house and you're under contract. You get final loan approval and you're cleared to close. You are required to wire the money that you need to close with from your bank account to the bank account of the closing title company or attorney facilitating the closing. Your money is safe because it's going from one bank to another, right? Not nessesarily. 

Wire fraud is happening frequently. I recently wrote a blog on this topic for the realtor community on  what they can do to help protect you. Click here to read that article. But you need to protect yourself as well.

First, request that the wire transfer information be sent to you directly and not to your realtor to forward. I do this for my buyers and then I instruct them to do the following: Before you even go to the bank to wire your money, look up the phone number of the title company or attorney. Call them and verify that the information you recieved is correct, especially the account numbers. Once you have verified that the information is correct, you can go to your bank and wire the funds. 

Hackers are getting into realtor email accounts, looking for wire transfer informations, changing the account numbers and when the realtor forwards the instructions to buyers, the buyers wire the money only to find out it never arrived and was rerouted to an unknown account and the money is gone.

Your team of professionals are always doing their best to protect you but you have a respondibility to protect yourself as well as much as possible. You've saved a long time to get that downpayment and maybe even received gift money. Don't let the crooks keep you from your dream of having your own home. Verify all information before wireing money to anyone, for any reason. 

 

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Comments (3)

Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Hi Sam

This is such an important matter for buyers to be aware of. We keep hearing more and more about this scam, although thankfully escrow companies in our area are now reminding everyone to call and verify wiring instructions, but some are using encryption methods for further safeguards.

Jeff

Sep 27, 2016 07:16 AM
Stavrula "Sam" Crafa, RNC,GRI, CDPE, PSA

We have had several cases in our area with the latest being a buyer that lost $52000 that the local news station has been reporting about. Still unresolved at this point. Grateful it hasn't happened to any of my clients. 

Sep 27, 2016 07:54 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Good for you for writing about this. It's SO important that we should all keep reminding agents and clients.

When I wrote about it, I suggested that account numbers should never be transmitted via email. Pick up the phone or deliver the information in person. 

Oct 05, 2016 01:46 AM
Stavrula "Sam" Crafa, RNC,GRI, CDPE, PSA
Future Home Realty - Seminole, FL
Providing the integrity and service you deserve.

And to add to all this, my computor repair guy was telling me that most email hacking happens when people save files to Cloud storage sites. They are great for saving your pictures because who cares about your vacation pictures. They are looking for bank account numbers, passwords revealed in emails, etc. I was told I Cloud is the worst. Glad I don't save anything there. 

Oct 05, 2016 04:14 AM