Protect Your Closing

The one call.

A scam stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars at closings around the country — and the simple habit that stops it.

What's happening, in plain terms

When you buy or sell a home, money has to move. Buyers wire their funds to the closing attorney before closing day. Sellers receive their proceeds the same way after. The whole American real estate system runs on these wire transfers.

Criminals know this. And they've learned to slip in between you and the closing attorney long enough to redirect the money to themselves.

Once a wire goes to the wrong account, the money is almost never recovered. The thieves move it within minutes. The buyer or seller is left to deal with the loss.

How the scam usually works

Somewhere in the weeks leading up to your closing — yours, your agent's, the closing attorney's, the lender's, a paralegal's — an email account gets quietly compromised. The criminals watch the messages flowing in and out. They learn the names, the timing, the language everyone uses.

Then, a day or two before you're supposed to wire money, you receive what looks like a perfectly normal email. It seems to be from your closing attorney. It might use their real signature, their real logo, their real phrasing. It says something like:

  • "Our wiring instructions have been updated. Please use the new routing and account number below."
  • "Please disregard the previous wire instructions — those were for a different transaction."
  • "We're using a different account this month for closings. Here are the new details."

If you follow those instructions, the money goes to the criminals — not the closing table.

The rule that stops it

Always verify wire instructions by phone.

Before you send a single dollar, call the closing attorney's office at a number you find on their official website — never the number in the email. Ask them to read the routing and account number to you over the phone. Confirm the wire instructions match exactly.

If they don't, you've just saved your closing.

The reason this works: even if criminals have access to email, they don't have access to the attorney's phone line. A real verification call goes to a real person at the office, who can confirm whether the instructions are legitimate.

It takes about three minutes. It's the single most important call you'll make during the entire transaction.

Warning signs to watch for

Treat any of these as a red flag

  • An email that says wire instructions have changed, especially close to closing day
  • Urgent language — "send today," "we need this immediately," "the closing depends on it"
  • A request to wire to a different bank than originally discussed
  • An email from the closing attorney that comes from a slightly different address than before (an extra letter, a different domain)
  • Anyone asking you to keep the change "confidential" or not mention it to the agent
  • A request to send money to a personal account or an account in a different state

Habits that help

  • Establish a verification phone number the day the contract is signed. Confirm with your agent and attorney which number you'll use to verify everything. Save it in your phone.
  • Never trust phone numbers in emails. Always look up the real number independently — on the firm's website, on a business card you received in person, or from a prior printed document.
  • Send wires earlier in the day. If a wire goes to the wrong place, you have more hours to contact the bank and try to halt it. After 3 p.m., your options shrink.
  • Tell your bank you're closing on a home. Some banks add extra verification for large outgoing wires. That extra friction can save you.

What to do if you think you've been hit

Move fast. Every minute matters.

  1. Call your bank. Ask them to recall the wire immediately. Use the words "wire fraud recall."
  2. Call the closing attorney's office. Tell them what happened so they can alert other parties.
  3. File with the FBI. The Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov is the federal agency that handles wire fraud cases. They have rapid-response protocols for real estate wire fraud reported within 72 hours.
  4. Notify your local police. File a report and request the case number. Insurance and your bank may need it.

The faster you act, the better the odds of recovery. Cases reported within 24 hours have a meaningfully higher chance of getting funds back than cases reported later in the week.

One more note: this kind of fraud is not rare. It's the most common real estate scam reported to the FBI, and it has cost American buyers and sellers hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years. Every closing I run includes a wire-verification reminder, but the call is yours to make. Make it.

Working Together

Every closing I run includes a wire-verification protocol.

From the day we go under contract, my clients know exactly which phone number to use to verify wire instructions. It's part of the work — and one of the small reasons closings happen cleanly.

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