PORT ANGELES — Always verify before wiring money to a real estate agent or title company, experts say.
Criminals are hacking into email accounts and sending electronic notices to people in escrow directing them to wire funds to fraudulent accounts in a nationwide scam, said Doc Reiss, Port Angeles Association of Realtors president.
“If you get an email from an escrow company telling you to wire money, get a hold of your agent and find out what’s going on,” Reiss said.
“Do not reply. Do not call. If you don’t recognize the number, call your agency.”
Realtors do not interject themselves into escrow transactions, Reiss said.
He added that the scam is “all over the place.”
“It’s been going on in the background now for a couple of years, and now it’s starting to jump into more prevalence,” Reiss said.
Call settlement agent
Maureen Pfaff, general manager and chief financial officer of Olympic Peninsula Title Co., encouraged homebuyers to call their settlement agent when they receive an electronic wire instruction.
“The best advice is the most simple advice,” Pfaff said.
“Just verify before you send money. There’s no settlement agent I’ve ever met who will not be glad to verify those numbers.”
Pfaff said she knows of one transaction where a Clallam County homebuyer wired funds to a fraudulent account in Texas.
lthough she knows of no similar case in Jefferson County, Pfaff said everyone is susceptible.
“It’s a global playing field,” she said.
Scammers will target email accounts of anyone involved in real estate transactions, including real estate agents, title companies and real estate attorneys.
They monitor the stream of emails going back and forth between the professional and their client and identify when a sale is imminent.
At that point, the scammer sends a fraudulent email to the buyer — or sometimes the seller — with last-minute wiring instructions.
The fraudulent emails are often similar to correspondence from the agent, Reiss said.
“Usually what happens is the fraudster wants to create a sense of urgency, and they want to cut off that line of communication,” Pfaff said.
The money usually bounces from one fraudulent account to a second account outside of the county, never to be seen again, Pfaff said.
Because wired funds are cash, “once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Reiss said.
Verbal verification
Verbal verification remains the best way to avoid the scam, Pfaff added.
Olympic Peninsula Title Co. has received false wire instructions on three occasions, said Pfaff, who stopped an attempted fraud herself.
The company is “very attuned” to cyberfraud and has added extra layers of security to its protocols, including encrypted email, Pfaff said.
Pfaff, who attends regular conferences, said the real estate scam has been a national concern for about the past two years.
“People that are doing this, they don’t know anything about us,” Pfaff said.
“They just know that money moves in real estate transactions.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
