Require the title companies your credit union works with to use encrypted emails when sending wire transfer instructions.Establish a passcode with the title company or closing agent in advance to be used in conjunction with your call back and verification process.Establish procedures to call the title company back with a confirmed phone number to verify the legitimacy of wire transfer instructions received by email or fax. Unfortunately, this fraud is usually only discovered when the title company or closing agent informs the buyer or financial institution that they did not received the anticipated funds.Ĭredit unions can guard against this type of fraud in the following ways: Once the funds are sent, the criminal moves on. The buyer or financial institution then follows the bogus instructions to generate the wire transfer request. The fraudster then emails the buyer or financial institution with bogus wire-transfer instructions related to a particular real estate loan closing.A fraudster hacks into a title company or lender’s email server or computer system to search for upcoming real estate closings and.What makes this type of scam so enticing to criminals and easy to pull off is the nature of the real estate closing process, which is often hurried, and the fact that email is a commonly used method for providing legitimate instructions for sending funds at closing. This type of fraud was reported in all 50 states. (You will be leaving and accessing a non-NCUA website.īy the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of fraudulent wire transfer scams reported by title companies and closing agents to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (opens new window) According to a warning issued (opens new window) Increasingly, financial institutions and home buyers are falling victim to wire transfer scams connected to real estate closings. However, the very nature of real estate transactions-large amounts of money transferring between parties-makes them a prime target for criminals. Buying a home, especially the first, is supposed to be an exciting time.
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