Wire Fraud Prevention
Real estate closings are a top target for wire fraud. A two-minute phone call protects your money.
Wire fraud warning
Elevation Title will never email or text you a change to our wiring instructions. Criminals hack email accounts and send fake wiring instructions that look real. Before you wire any money, call our office at a phone number you have verified independently (not one from the email) and confirm the instructions with a person.
How to protect your fundsHow the scam works
Criminals break into the email accounts of buyers, sellers, Realtors, lenders or title companies and watch for an upcoming closing. Just before funds are due, they send an email that looks legitimate, often from an address one letter off from the real one, with “updated” wiring instructions for their own account. Once money is wired to the wrong account, it is often impossible to recover.
Protect yourself
- Call before you wire. Call our office using a phone number you got independently, such as from this website or your Realtor, and confirm the instructions with a person.
- Treat any change as fraud. We will never change our wiring instructions by email or text.
- Check the sender’s address. Look closely for misspellings or extra characters.
- Do not click links or open attachments in unexpected emails about your closing.
- Confirm receipt. After you wire, call us to confirm the funds arrived.
If you think you have been targeted
- Call your bank immediately and ask them to recall the wire.
- Call our office.
- File a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
- Contact your local police department.
The faster you act, the better the chance of recovering the funds.