In 2018 Americans lost nearly $150 million to real estate scams. In fact, scams in the industry have jumped more than 1,000% since 2015. These scams are known as wire fraud and it happens all the time. There are ways to stay safe from wire fraud.

What is wire fraud? It is similar to other types of fraud, however, it takes place over phone lines or other electronic communications such as email. In instances such as this, a person typically concocts a scheme to defraud or obtain money from an individual based on false promises or representation. This occurs often in real estate.

A Victim’s Story of Fraud

An anonymous person was almost defrauded $60,000 to purchase her dream home as a Forbes article noted. The author states that she was days away from closing when she got an email from her escrow officer. The victim was instructed to wire closing costs right away or the closing date would be delayed. However, upon closer inspection of the email, something seemed off. The font was right, the signature was right and there was even a CC to her real estate agent. But all of the email addresses were off by one character. The email was fake.

More often than not, individuals are not as careful as the author was and end up wiring money over. Unknowingly, sending over their hard-earned money to a scammer. However, there are ways to protect yourself and, by doing so, ensure that you are not another statistic.

One way to protect yourself is to use two-step authentication for your email. Two-step authentication protects your account by providing a verification code through either a phone call or text message to sign in. 

How to Stay Safe from Fraud

Do not send money if you are being pressured. Someone who is trying to steal from you will pressure you to try to get you to think emotionally rather than rationally. In this example, the hacker tried to use her desire to move in soon to try to get her to wire money over. Don’t stress. Relax, and look at the email with a clear head.

Another way to protect yourself is to pick up the phone and verbally verify the wire instructions with the recipient. By doing this, you eliminate any sort of confusion around the wire transfer. This tip is one that can stop wire fraud in its tracks quickly. For example, if the author of the article had called her escrow officer as soon as she received the email then the escrow officer would have been able to tell her that she did not send that email and it was the action of a hacker.

There are many ways to stay safe when it comes to wire fraud. But the best tip is to be as careful as you need to be to be comfortable about the transaction. Always be aware of what is going on and you’ll be able to stay safe from wire fraud.