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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 6, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BEC scam, business email compromise ( 8 ), home buying, real estate ( 117 ), Scams ( 1,224 ), wire fraud ( 21 ), wire transfer ( 4 )   

  Family loses $160K to home buying scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Lately, we’ve noticed an uptick in news stories about the business email compromise scam. While this is only anecdotal evidence, it can mean that scammers are getting better at it, or more people are coming forward about it. Either way, it seems we can expect to see increasing incidents of the BEC scam.

  For those who may not be familiar, the BEC scam is a scam that targets businesses and individuals who regularly perform wire transfers or make large payments via email. In this scam, the attackers use social engineering tactics to trick the victim into sending money to a fraudulent account instead of the intended recipient.

  In the context of buying a house, the BEC scam typically involves impersonating a real estate agent, lawyer, or title company representative. The attacker sends an email that appears to be from one of these legitimate sources and instructs the homebuyer to wire transfer the funds for the down payment or closing costs to a specified account. The email may seem convincing and use language that mimics that of the real estate professional, including branding and logos.

  A family from Ohio recently fell victim to this scam while closing on their home after the husband retired from the military. Since they were a military family, they are familiar with the home buying process. However, in Ohio, it’s required by law to wire any closing costs over $10,000, instead of paying by check. They received an email from who they thought was the title company, and followed the included instructions on where to wire the funds. The transfer was for $160,000. It wasn’t until the next day when the family discovered the title company wasn’t the one who requested the transfer.

  The family contacted their bank, and the wire transfer was stopped before going into the scammer’s account, but the bank is allegedly dragging their feet as far as issuing a refund to the family. This isn’t surprising considering the amount of bank scams we’ve seen where the banks refuse to issue refunds.

  The family was still able to close on their home, but not everyone has that luxury.

  To avoid falling victim to a BEC scam when buying a house, it is important to always verify payment instructions before sending any money. This can involve calling the real estate professional or company to confirm that the account details are correct. Additionally, it is wise to be cautious of emails that seem urgent or that request immediate wire transfers without sufficient verification.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 21, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BEC scam, business email compromise ( 8 ), real estate ( 117 ), Scams ( 1,224 ), wire fraud ( 21 )   

  When buying a home, double-check that email 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The business email compromise scam has become popular with scammers over the past few years because it is extremely profitable for them. It only takes one victim to fall for the scam for the scammers to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  There are typically two versions of the BEC scam. The first one targets corporate interests. Scammers send emails to employees or executives in a company, pretending to be a high-ranking official, such as the CEO or CFO. The email will often instruct the recipient to transfer funds or provide sensitive information such as bank account numbers, passwords, or other personal data.

  The other version of the BEC scam is the one we’re interested in today, and it’s where scammers will try to intercept the wire transfer of funds from the home buyer to the seller or the escrow company.

  For example, a man from Stamford, Connecticut, almost lost $426,000 to BEC scammers. The scammers had infiltrated the man’s email exchanges with his realtor, and told him to wire the money to a fraudulent bank account. Luckily, his bank was able to freeze the transfer before the scammers could make off with his money. Unfortunately, not every BEC scam victim can recover their money.

  A similar thing happened to a retired teacher from Colorado. She lost almost $200,000 to BEC scammers while trying to buy a home. At some point, while exchanging emails with the title company, the conversation was hijacked by scammers. The victim was pressured into wiring the closing costs to a scam account. When she went to the title company to close on the home, she was devastated when they told her they never received any payment. The $200,000 was all the money the woman had. Even with the involvement of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, it’s not certain she’ll recover her money.

  BEC Scams can happen one of two ways. Sometimes the scammer will use an email address that’s similar to the authentic email address. So, when dealing with realtors, banks, and escrow companies, double-check the spelling of the email address before replying. The other way the BEC scam happens is when a company has had their business emails compromised by hackers or malware. In this instance, if the email appears to be legitimate, always double check with a phone call to the party that’s supposedly requesting the payment.