Email and wire fraud/hacking scams are happening to real estate agents and buyers/sellers. Please help us by warning your clients to be aware of the potential for an email or wire fraud scam during their real estate transactions.
The title industry continues to see attempts at email and wire fraud scams. Scammers are posing as title closers, lenders, and real estate agents – their attempts to trick a consumer into a scam are becoming harder and harder to spot for a buyer or seller who is busy packing/moving and receiving several emails about the purchase or sale of their home. When preparing a buyer or seller for closing day remind them to be diligent in reading the emails they receive regarding their closing. Buyers, Sellers, and Real Estate Professionals should watch for these “Red Flags”.
- Use of the word “kindly” or words indicating friendship when making a request
- Generic or non-personal greetings
- Unusual or unnecessary sense of urgency
- Requests to Wire Funds to a new, unknown, or foreign bank
- Offers too good to be true
- Poor spelling, grammar, and missing punctuation
- Any email asking you to click a hyperlink
- Other than Results Title Secure Emails or verified portal emails
- Spoofed Emails: Always check the domain names ResultsTitle.Employee@resultstitle.net vs. ReusultsTitle.Employee@AOL.com
- Hover over the From: section of your email to reveal a Gmail or other public server imposter
- Customers or colleagues are receiving spam messages from your account
- You receive replies to emails you did not send
- Your account settings are configured to forward emails to unknown email addresses
Most scam attempts that are sent to buyers or sellers are telling the customer to wire funds for their closing – Results Title or any other title company will not send an email asking any buyer or seller to wire funds for their closing without speaking to them on the phone first and contact via email will be sent through a secure email link.
If your Buyer or Seller receives an email that appears to be an email or wire fraud scam, please direct them to reach out to their Closing Team at Results Title to verify if the email is valid or not. Your Closing Team will then contact our IT Department to further investigate if it is an email or wire fraud scam and advise of any further steps needed.
As always if you have any questions or need assistance, please stop by your local Results Title Closing Office and our Closing Teams would be happy to assist.