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How to avoid wire fraud when buying a home

By HomeHunterGuide editors · Updated · About HomeHunterGuide

How to avoid wire fraud when buying a home
Photo: Mohamed Hassan, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Real estate wire fraud is one of the most damaging scams buyers face, because the amounts are large and wires are hard to reverse.

How it works

A criminal gets into an email account involved in your purchase, then sends a convincing message with "updated" wiring instructions.

Five steps

  1. Get wiring instructions at the start, in person or from the title company’s known phone number.
  2. Call to confirm any instructions, using a number you found yourself, never one in the email.
  3. Treat any change as a red flag. Title companies rarely change instructions.
  4. Confirm receipt with the title company right after you send.
  5. Act fast if something is wrong: call your bank to try to recall the wire, then report it to the FBI at ic3.gov.

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