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.
Comments (3)Subscribe to CommentsComment