BEWARE OF:
FRAUD
HACKING
STEALING wired accounts
Theft of Escrow Trust Accounts
Bad Guys Trying to Take your Down
Payment
The internet is not private.
Be careful wiring money.
It's not insured.
Wire and other disbursement instructions
received by email should be confirmed by
telephone
at a known or independently
confirmed
number, NOT the
telephone number
at the bottom of the email you are
trying to
confirm. Lookup the Escrow company and Title
company
you are using online AND ask your
lender
if they are familiar with the persons. Lenders
have
their own internal systems of verifying and
approving
escrow and title companies which
includes
checking with the Secretary of State,
checking
loss claims, and verifying they are who
they
say they are.
Be especially skeptical of any change in
wiring
instructions from us or any parties
involved in
the transaction. How often do people and
businesses
change their wire instructions-
rare
or never are they going to change the
bank
account they use, unless it is hacked.
Specifically,
if you receive an email or any other
communication
that appears to be generated
from
our office, containing new, revised or
altered
bank wire instructions,
consider it suspect and call two sources to
verify
at a number you trust.
Your
email address is not private- if for
Example
the email you are using for the
Transaction
that you provided to the lender
And
escrow company is the same as the
Email
on Facebook assume a million people
Have
the Facebook email. Don’t mention on
Social;
media that you are moving, selling or
Purchasing.
Confirm the account to which you are wiring
is
in the name of the party entitled to the
funds;
encourage buyers and sellers to do the
same.
Be suspicious of emails from free,
public
email account domains that pertain to
the
movement of money, as
these email accounts
are
often a source of risk.
DO NOT CLICK ON Links in emails or on
Sites
you don’t know extremely well.
Consider what email account domain you
use for any financial business. As stated
above,
the free, public email account
domains
are a target for cyber-thieves and,
without
additional levels of security, are
particularly
vulnerable to attack.
Watch out for phishing emails with
embedded links, even when they look like
ones sent from a trusted source.
What is phishing you ask?
People who want to steal ask questions about:
sensitive information
usernames,
passwords,
names of your children
date of birth
credit card details
Organized crime can access your information.
When you are buying or selling real estate they
know large sums of money are going to be wired.
This makes you a target when wiring your earnest
money, down payment and closing costs
Things to look for:
Bad grammar ( they use Google Translate)
A website with colors that mimic your Bank of America, Chase or Wells Colors
email address is not from the company name
Rushing you, hurrying you for a deadline
You didn't contact them or login to your account but they say you did
Things to look for:
Bad grammar ( they use Google Translate)
A website with colors that mimic your Bank of America, Chase or Wells Colors
email address is not from the company name
Rushing you, hurrying you for a deadline
You didn't contact them or login to your account but they say you did