Greg's Corner

Tagged: closing cost scam Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  Geebo 8:00 am on April 12, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: closing cost scam, real estate ( 117 ), Scams ( 1,223 ), wire fraud ( 21 )   

  Closing costs stolen in real estate scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  This scam doesn’t sound like it should be possible. It seems more like something you would see as a plot point in a movie. That doesn’t change the fact this scam happens rather regularly. While it is a type of phishing scam, this scam doesn’t even have a name for it, as far as we know. We’ve been calling it the closing cost scam, since it targets home buyers who are getting ready to close on their new homes. If it wasn’t for the fact that victims have lost upwards of $100,000, this scam could be considered genius. How it happened recently is especially uncanny.

  A man from Louisville, Kentucky, was getting ready to close on his new home, when he received an email that appeared to come from his closing attorney. The email instructed the man to wire $70,000 in order to prevent any delay with the closing procedure. After wiring the money, the man called his realtor, who informed him that the closing attorney did not send the email. The man tried to get the bank to stop the transfer of funds, but it had already happened, meaning the $70,000 was gone.

  Scammers were able to fool the victim because the email looked almost identical to the ones he had been receiving from his attorney, including the logo and signature. However, there was one minor detail the victim overlooked. The law office had the word Louisville in their name and in their email address. The scammers spelled Louisville in their email address with only one L, spelling it Louisvile.

  Somehow, scammers are getting into the email systems of realtors, lenders, and attorneys, and are monitoring the activity until someone goes to close before setting their trap. The scammers have also been known to stalk social media profiles of people who share with their friends that they’re getting ready to buy a house.

  If you’re getting ready to close on a home, be suspicious of any communication asking you to send money. If you receive an email like the one in the story above, call the sender to verify whether the request is legitimate or not. It would be even better to visit the sender in person to verify any requests. No one wants to go through the process of buying a new home only to have the deal fall through at the very last minute due to a scammer.

   

  Leave a ReplyCancel reply
• 

  Geebo 8:00 am on July 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: closing cost scam, mortgage scam ( 4 ), real estate ( 117 ), Scams ( 1,223 ), wire fraud ( 21 )   

  Victim loses closing costs in real estate scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  When dealing with real estate, rental scams are not the only scam you have to worry about. Lately, we’ve seen an ever-increasing rise in a scam where the victims are set to close on a new home. The scammers are somehow sliding into the home buyer’s email and posing as the loan agency. The scammers then ask for the closing payment to be wired to them. By the time the victim realizes that they’ve been scammed, they’ve lost thousands of dollars with little to no recourse. We can’t even imagine the sense of dread that the victims of this scam feel when they find out they’ve not only lost their closing payment, but also finding out that the deal on their new home might fall through because of it.

  This is exactly what happened to one woman in Alabama when she was getting ready to close on her home. The night before she was getting ready to close on a new home for her and her children, she received an email that appeared to come from her closing agency. The email asked her to wire $6,000 for the closing costs. On closing day, she received a call from her bank asking her if anyone else had contacted her about the closing cost. She was then told that whoever contacted her wasn’t from the bank. As in most cases, once the wire transfer was sent, the money was unrecoverable.

  If you’re working with a loan agency, bank or credit union to obtain a mortgage for a new home, be suspicious of any communication asking you to send money. If you receive an email like the one in the story above, call the bank to verify that they sent the email in the first place. It would be even better to visit the bank in person to verify any requests. No one wants to go through the process of buying a new home only to have the deal fall through at the very last minute.