Wire Fraud Prevention

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shares a common wire fraud scam and what homebuyers need to know about avoiding these types of mortgage scams. 

Learn how these simple steps can prevent wire fraud during your real estate transaction. From day one, it is recommended that real estate agents inform their clients how they will be communicating throughout their transaction and how other parties like a title company or lender will be contacting them.

Other tips to prevent wire fraud include:

1. Reminding clients to contact the intended recipient of a wire to confirm the wire instructions are accurate before releasing a wire.
2. Before calling to confirm, have them cross check the phone number AND email on the wire instructions against a known number and email of the intended recipient. It is common for the thief to use a generic email and simply copy and paste a title/escrow’s email signature line to act as them, but upon deeper review, the email will be incorrect. 
3. In general, any changes in wire instructions and phone numbers are a red flag!
4. Do not open any suspicious emails or click on any suspicious links.
5. Do not save wiring instructions on a desktop to send to the client. Midtown Title will always send its wire instructions via secure email on every transaction.

Have questions about wire fraud? Contact our team directly.