YOU SAVED FOR YEARS. THEY STOLE IT IN ONE EMAIL.
Real estate wire fraud has increased 50x in under a decade. Here's the Callback Rule that stops it.
A couple in Colorado closed on their first home last spring.
They wired $42,000 for the down payment to the title company. Or so they thought.
The wire instructions came from their real estate agent's email address. Same logo. Same signature. Same transaction details.
Except it wasn't their agent.
A scammer had been monitoring the email thread for weeks, waiting for the perfect moment to send fake wire instructions.
The money vanished in 90 minutes.
This isn't rare
In less than 10 years, annual losses from real estate wire fraud have increased fiftyfold.
From $9 million to $446 million.
And those are just the cases reported to the FBI. The actual number is likely much higher.
Why real estate?
Here's why scammers love real estate transactions: they're predictable.
Listings are public. Closing dates are known. Everyone expects a last minute wire. And the amounts are life-changing.
The median home sale price in the U.S. is $427,000. That's a massive payday for a single email.
Scammers don't need to hack anything sophisticated. They compromise one email account in the transaction chain, monitor the thread, and wait. When closing day approaches, they send fake wire instructions that look identical to the real ones.
By the time anyone notices, the money is gone.
The callback rule
We use something called the callback rule.
Before you wire any amount over $1,000, you call to confirm. Not reply to the email. Not text. Call.
And here's the critical part: you use a phone number you found independently.
Google the title company. Look up the number on their official website. Never use the number provided in the email you received.
Scammers control the email thread. They can even include a fake phone number. But they don't control the company's public phone line.
When you call, verify three things out loud:
- The account number
- The routing number
- The recipient name
If anything doesn't match, stop the wire immediately.
What to do if you've already wired
Time matters. If you suspect fraud:
- Contact your bank immediately and request a SWIFT recall
- File a complaint with the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov
- Call your local FBI field office with the IC3 complaint number
The FBI's Recovery Asset Team has successfully frozen funds in many cases, but only when victims act within the first 24 to 48 hours.
Your one takeaway
Before wiring closing funds, call the title company using a number from their official website. Verify the account number, routing number, and recipient name out loud.
One phone call. Three minutes.
That's all that stands between you and keeping your down payment.
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