From eager beavers to phantom fraudsters, here are the tricks you need to watch out for. The world of title insurance is full of highs and lows. On the positive side, title agents often get to help aspiring buyers achieve their dream of home ownership. On the other hand, doing this work, and doing it well, means having to stay …
Escrow Fraud Schemes Follow a Common Pattern
We’ve all heard escrow fraud stories, and maybe you or someone you know has even had a wire diverted. The details can be pretty freaky. See what you think of this one: A young woman is selling a property and her father is the real estate agent on the deal. The father and daughter hand deliver wire instructions to the …
Escrow Fraud Remains Low Risk, High Reward
Several months ago, title agents across the country observed an uptick in attempted escrow fraud. In many cases, fraudsters posed as other participants in the transaction and attempted to trick agents into wiring funds to fraudulent accounts. The vast bulk of these escrow fraud attempts involved bogus emails. The stories and dollar losses were startling, and the industry responded. Alliant …
Fraud Watch: What is the Business Email Compromise?
Wire fraud attempts are very common in the title industry. A typical wire fraud scheme, encountered by some of our agents, is known as a business email compromise (“BEC”). In this scheme, the fraudster has hacked into a party’s email account. The fraudster then lies in wait, they read the outgoing and incoming emails waiting for a sales transaction to …