It’s no secret that the internet makes both social and business communications more rapid and efficient than ever before. Unfortunately, the convenience of today’s technology also brings with it new opportunities for people to tap into your finances.
When it comes to real estate, the process of buying and selling a property often involves large sums of money being transferred via a bank wire. This process can often open the door for devious thieves to hack into communications among buyers, sellers, lenders, real estate agents, and settlement service providers. Once they’ve tapped into your conversations, their next step is typically to send a fraudulent email instructing those involved in the real estate deal to wire money to a fraudulent account while claiming that the account belongs to one of the other parties.
So how can you avoid falling victim to this type of scam?
Never wire funds based upon only one communication. Always call the publicly available phone number of the vendor or customer to verify wire instructions are authentic, especially when you receive a request to wire funds to an account or bank other than what was previously provided.
Want more information? Contact our Real Estate Group.