Danger, Danger! Wire Fraud Strikes Again!

By Jim Palmer Jr.

A couple of years ago I wrote about how my email had been hacked and then told about how crooks were using wire fraud in real estate closings to bilk unwary buyers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The criminals who relentlessly pursue opportunities to steal your money are getting better at what they do!  In a recent Spokane, WA case, a woman lost $100,000 in a real estate transaction when she fell for the wire fraud scam.

In this case the evil doer had silently hacked information from the Realtor®, the closer (a title company) and the lender, and then methodically cyber stalked each email account until they had enough information about this particular transaction to pull off the scam. The buyer received fake emails from those three vendors concerning the need to wire her $100,000 check to a certain account, which of course was NOT the real closer’s account. The buyer didn’t realize that the fake email letter (she thought was from the Realtor®) was not from the Realtor®, and in fact, the email address was one letter off the actual Realtor® email address. The emailed letter from the closer was on “official letterhead” which further deceived the buyer.  When she called the closer to confirm receipt of the monies, they were sorry to inform the buyer that the email requesting the funds was not from them. The seller lost the sale, the buyer lost the house AND $100K and somewhere out in cyber-land a crook is one-hundred-thousand dollars richer. The buyer had no recourse and was devastated by this financial loss.

Don’t be one of the statistics in a wire fraud case! Real estate buyers can avoid such fraud by taking two simple steps; 1) Obtain the phone number of your real estate broker and your escrow agent (closer) at your first meeting, 2) Call the known number to speak directly with your broker or escrow officer to confirm wire instructions PRIOR to wiring. DO NOT rely upon email communications! Your escrow agent will NEVER send such communication in an email. They will call directly or will send instructions in regular mail. Keep in mind that the sneaky crooks will be chameleon-like in their efforts to deceive and their cloaked identity will likely never be discovered. You need to assume that everyone’s email is subject to hackers and that those who have been hacked are usually unaware of that fact.