What You Need to Know About Wire Fraud

The federal government announced on June 11th, 2018 that had successfully conducted an international sweep targeting participants in wire fraud schemes. The operation, called “Operation Wire Wire”, resulted in the arrest of 74 people across five countries, including the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Poland, and Mauritius.

While this sweep was a clear success, it is still important to understand the warning signs of wire fraud when conducting real estate transactions. Our team at Hall & Sullivan put together a list highlighting the best ways to protect yourself from scams:

1. Take a careful look at how wire instructions are sent. Look at the email address of the contact and the company. Many wire fraud schemes are created to look like they came from a reputable company, but in actuality their email addresses don’t match up 100%.

2. Err on the side of caution. If something looks suspicious, pick up the phone and call the appropriate closing attorney, realtor, title company or financial institution to verify the wire instructions.

3. Watch out for last minute changes. Wire instructions rarely change. If you receive an email stating that the wiring instructions or account information has changed, confirm this new information with the appropriate party.