Does Real Estate Wire Fraud Exist in South Carolina?

Yes, real estate wire fraud in SC is real! Do not be lulled into the idea of “it won’t happen to me”! Laziness, inattentiveness and/or simply being too busy to pay attention, is what cyber criminals rely on to get your money. They are just waiting for you to let down your guard giving them the opportunity to steal from you.
 

How Cyber Criminals Create Real Estate Wire Fraud

The goal of the cyber criminal is to have you wire funds to them instead of the correct party. One way they do this is by hacking into computers and monitoring emails so they can determine the parties to a transaction. Once they discover the names and contact information of the parties to the transaction, they will impersonate a party to the transaction and attempt to divert the money being wired for the closing. What they are relying on is for you to either be unknowledgeable about their strategy, or simply not paying attention.

 

Who Are Potential Targets?

Anyone in a real estate transaction can be a target of real estate wire fraud in SC. Whether you are the homebuyer, home seller, mortgage company, closing attorney or many others, your money can be at risk.
 

• The Buyer: The home buyer wires down payment and closing cost money to the attorney for closing.
• The Closing Attorney: The attorney wires money to the seller’s lender to pay off the home seller’s loan. They may also wire the home seller their proceeds from the sale. The attorney also occasionally wires the real estate companies their commission checks. Also based on the settlement statement they may wire money to a variety of service providers in the transaction.
• The Mortgage Company: The home buyers mortgage company wires the money the buyer is borrowing to the attorney’s office for closing.
• The Home Seller: The seller may wire their proceeds money to their investment banker or others.

This list is just a small sample of the subsequent transactions that are executed because of a real estate sale. And there are probably many others we have not mentioned.
As you can see the stakes are high and it is easy to understand why a real estate transaction is target of cyber criminals.

 

How to Protect Yourself from Real Estate Wire Fraud in SC?

 

• Pay Attention: No one is going to look out for your money like you will!
• Always be suspicious of emailed wire instructions.
• Check the wire’s authenticity and routing numbers.
• Verify wiring instructions with a trusted source either in person or over the phone with someone you actually know and will recognize their voice. Never by email or text.

Cyber criminals are very clever and will use a variety of methods to steal your information and your money. The SC Real Estate Board has produced a disclosure form (see below) to help increase the public awareness of this issue. Although, it is not a required form, most Realtors® will provide this form to educate their clients.

Wire Fraud can have a devastating impact on your life.
   

Real Estate Wire Fraud What Does It Look Like?

Below is actual correspondence between a cyber-criminal and a homebuyer. The names of the parties and other sensitive information have been altered to protect their privacy.

• This email message has a sense of urgency and requires the homebuyer to reply to the message.
• It uses the word “Kindly” in a way that some people might not.
• The author uses questionable grammar in the message which is often a tip-off that something is not right.
• The sender is using an email signature and company name that matches a real person and the real company.

• At this point the homebuyer is unaware that they are being targeted in an attempted Wire Fraud.
• For the homebuyer, requesting the wiring information at this stage is normal and appropriate!
• So why wouldn’t the homebuyer be willing to send the wire based on this correspondence?

Luckily in this case, the homebuyer became suspicious! Would you have sent the wire without verifying the authenticity of the instructions? It is a scary thought, but these crimes happen, and innocent people are hurt financially by crime like this too often.

 

Learn how to find the true source of an email!

 

This is how the cyber criminals disguise their true identities when sending spam and phishing emails. Now you know how to discover the email source.

If you ever feel like you are being targeted by a cyber-criminal, make sure your report it to the proper authorities.


This helpful and informative article has been provided to CharlestonNewHomesGuide.com by Bill Byrd of Keller Williams – Byrd Property Group located in Charleston SC.  As a real estate professional for 35+ years, Bill has seen a few scams however, none have had such a devastating effect on people’s lives as Real Estate Wire Fraud. Beware, cyber criminals are out there, and they are hunting for our money!  
More About Bill   //    Link to original article

 

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