Wire fraud at closing

How it actually happens

1. Someone’s email is compromised — often the agent’s or the title company’s rather than yours. Frequently they are simply reading, not sending, for weeks.
2. They watch and wait. They learn the closing date, the amount, the names, and how everyone normally writes. There is no urgency on their side until the moment there is.
3. Instructions arrive at the right moment, from an address that looks correct at a glance — one letter changed, a lookalike domain, or genuinely from the real compromised account.
4. You wire. The money moves through several accounts within hours and is frequently overseas by the next morning.

The rules that actually prevent it

• Get wire instructions in person or by phone, from a number you obtained independently — from the company’s website, an earlier document, or by walking in. Never a number contained in the email itself.
• Call and read the account number and routing number aloud digit by digit. Do not ask “are these correct?” — read them out and have the other person confirm each one.
• Treat any change of instructions as fraud until proven otherwise. Legitimate last-minute changes to wire details are rare. Fraudulent ones are the entire attack.
• Be more suspicious when it is urgent, not less. Urgency is manufactured precisely to stop you making the phone call.
• Send a small test wire first on a large transfer, and confirm receipt by phone before sending the balance.
• Tell your bank it is a real estate closing. Some will apply additional verification if they know.

If you have already sent it

Speed is the only variable that matters. The FBI’s recovery team froze $679 million of $1.16 billion attempted — 58%^† of what it attempted to freeze — but that success rate depends almost entirely on how quickly the transfer is reported. Do these in this order, and do them now rather than after you have finished working out how it happened.

1. Call your bank immediately and ask for a SWIFT recall or wire recall. Say the words “fraudulent wire transfer”. Do not email — call.
2. Call the receiving bank if you can identify it, and report the account as receiving fraudulent funds.
3. File with the FBI at ic3.gov, which is what activates the recovery process. Include the wire details, the amount, and the exact time.
4. Call your local FBI field office as well as filing. The written report and the phone call do different work.
5. Tell the title company, your agent and your lender — partly so the closing can be handled, partly because their systems may also be compromised and other people may be about to be hit.
6. Preserve everything. Do not delete the emails, do not clean up the mailbox, and keep the full headers.

The wider category

Beyond closing wires, real estate fraud generally accounted for $275.1 million^† across 12,368 complaints^†. Rental scams and fake listings make up a large share, and they follow a recognisable shape: a property priced noticeably below the market, an owner who is conveniently out of state, pressure to pay a deposit before viewing, and a request for payment by a method that cannot be reversed.

• Never pay a deposit or holding fee for a property you have not physically seen inside.
• Check the address against the county property appraiser’s record. The owner’s name is public, and it should match whoever is asking you for money.
• A listing photo set that appears elsewhere at a different price is a copied listing, not a bargain.
• Gift cards, cryptocurrency and cash apps are not how legitimate landlords or title companies take money.

Figures are from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center’s annual report and cover the United States as a whole, not Florida alone. Report suspected fraud at ic3.gov.