Scammers who break into a title company’s or agent’s email send buyers fake wiring instructions, usually framed as a last-minute change. Before you wire a down payment, call the title company at a number you had before that email arrived, and confirm the account name and number.
The email lands three days before closing, under your escrow officer’s name and inside the thread you’ve used all along. The title company switched banks after an audit, it says, and updated instructions for your down payment are attached.
Nothing inside that email can prove it’s real. A thief who has hacked an agent’s or title company’s account writes from within the genuine conversation, and one who hasn’t can copy the address, signature, and phone number closely enough to pass. Dial the number in the signature and you may reach the scammer.
Money wired to a thief usually lands in an account they empty quickly, which makes it hard to claw back. The check has to happen before you send.
Set the rules at the start. When your offer is accepted, ask the title company how wiring instructions will reach you and whether they will ever change, and save its phone number from your purchase contract or the company’s own website. From then on, any email announcing new instructions is an alarm, not a to-do.
Before you wire anything, call that saved number, ask for your escrow officer, and read back the account name and number.
Sellers face the same scheme aimed at their proceeds. Give the title company your payout details by phone or in person, never by email, and confirm them the same way before closing.
If you’ve already sent money to the wrong account, call your bank immediately and ask for a wire recall, then file a report at ic3.gov, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. A fast report gives the banks and the FBI a chance to freeze the receiving account before the thieves empty it, so do both within the hour.
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