Safety Tips for Wiring Funds for a Home Sale or Closing
Using email and other electronic means to facilitate a home sale or closing is becoming more and more common, even before the pandemic. Now that everyone is staying at home and keeping their distance, almost all closing tables are happening over Zoom with digital signatures and electronic payments.
If this hardly sounds safe, you would be right. Although going digital certainly makes things convenient, it also makes it much easier to successfully commit fraud. The FBI has divulged several different wire fraud scams that have been used repeatedly to illegally obtain real estate closing funds.
The most common wire transfer scam going on today is when a hacker discovers an upcoming closing and sends an email as if they were the seller with new wire transfer information and instructions. Even though email is the least secure method of arranging monetary transactions, the average person tends to do so without thinking about it. Thus, many closing brokers will take the email at face value.
Then, after the money has been transferred, the hacker disappears, and no one is the wiser until the seller calls and asks where their money is. While there is little you can do to stop hackers from getting closing information, there are some precautions you can take with your closing agent to make sure everything and everyone is on the up and up.
Never use email for monetary negotiations or transactions.
When you never discuss money over email from the beginning, it is a lot easier to ensure that the information necessary to commit fraud during closing is inaccessible to hackers. Even if they do get closing information, the closing agent will know immediately that there is a problem when money is mentioned in the email.
Password protection is key…and not just digital.
In today’s world, you can’t be too careful. Set up an extra password with your agents or brokers that must be given to make any changes to the transaction, in amount, destination account, or otherwise. This keeps anyone from calling and pretending to be you as well. And if there is an emergency message that is questionable, they’ll be able to verify that it is a legitimate instruction. Just make sure that the password is never given in any digital communication.
Authentication of identities can be difficult, but is important.
With everything being done digitally these days, it is a lot easier to change or create fraudulent identification documents. If you never see the buyer in person, what guarantee do you have that the person you are talking to is who you think they are? The best way to protect yourself is to use a closing agent with the ability to verify identities in a number of legal ways.
Of course, if you suspect fraud, you should immediately talk to your seller’s agent, as well as file a report with the proper authorities. As a full service title and closing company, we are ready to verify the identity of everyone at the closing table, as well as their legal authority to be there.
Interested in our services? Contact us today for more information.
