There have been threads on this in the past, but given that this just happened to a member of my family, I wanted to vent / warn everyone again.
This is an increasingly common scam where escrow and title companies have been hacked or scammers are otherwise getting access to information about a currently open escrow. They will spoof the escrow company's information and send you an email to wire your earnest money deposit or closing funds asap. The routing number and account number will not actually be for the escrow company, and once that wire goes through the money is gone.
Here's a story that was done about this scam about a year ago: https://abc7chicago.com/realestate/wired-away-couple-loses-life-savings-during-home-purchase/2630496/
This almost happened last week to a member of my family who is intelligent and generally business savvy. The email looked official, contained their names, the address of the property they were purchasing, and the exact amount for their closing. The signature and email shown were the same as their escrow agent. They set up the wire and left the bank, then called the escrow company to let them know the wire was en route. When the escrow agent said that they hadn't sent the wire instructions, they rushed back to the bank and were able to cancel the wire before it was sent.
It absolutely infuriates me that people pull this crap, and maybe this post will help prevent someone else from getting scammed. All the money you've saved for a house, the house you've fallen in love with during the purchase process, all gone because of some @$$%&$#.
If you are in escrow and need to wire money, these are the steps you need to take EVERY time you wire money.
- Verify the escrow company's phone number. Don't just grab it out of an email signature. Look up the company, verify the number before calling
- Talk to your actual escrow agent. Get the routing number and account number over the phone.
- NEVER take wire instructions via email. Even if they do email them, call the company to verify.
Good luck homebuyers - don't get scammed.
Submitted September 13, 2018 at 06:40PM by katemonster22 https://ift.tt/2CSaVs7
