Real estate agents, lawyers, title agencies, and buyers continue to be targets of profit-motivated hackers who try to defraud them out of thousands of dollars. Hackers target the email accounts of real estate agents, title agency representatives, paralegals, or homebuyers by spoofing (using their legitimate email addresses) and use them to send convincing emails to the targeted victims. In some cases, hackers have impersonated a known real estate agent or title agent by spoofing their email addresses and sending financial requests associated with a specific transaction to homebuyers. The subject and body of these emails will often portray a sense of urgency in an attempt to have targets immediately wire money before they have an opportunity to fully review the email’s content and question its legitimacy. NJ.com recently reported a similar incident in which a compromised email account led to the loss of over $91,000. In most cases, these scams are relatively simple for the criminals to conduct, but the consequences can be devastating.

Homebuyers and real estate entities must educate themselves and others on these malicious tactics and remain vigilant during and immediately after the closing process. Real estate businesses, including real estate attorneys and title agencies, should learn how to implement new policies aimed at preventing fraudulent wire transfers and other scams and put them in place along with a comprehensive employee and client awareness program. For example, forbid the sharing of wire transfer account information via email and instead utilize video chat applications, phone calls from trusted numbers, or in-person meetings. Buyers should never trust email as the sole source of instruction for wiring money related to these transactions and instead receive confirmation of these details in person or over the phone.

Ron Benvenisti