Our Board Attorney advised us to make a confirmation phone call before wiring any money based on "email instructions".  Verbally get the account number/routing numbers and the bank name.  Know who you are dealing with.

All the escrow companies are sending this information in an encrypted form but we still always call to verify the specific information, as Fred Griffin said. I don't think any public email is completely safe

Best to have a good old fashioned phone conversation before sending the money and trusting any email.

Annette Lawrence , Palm Harbor, FL 727-420-4041 There are no secure email servers at least no public ones. Any email service that is free to the public is not secure. Every spam email you get is from one of these servers.

Escrow wire fraud. Stop using email to pass along wire transfer information.

This is old news.

We got last year a special form required to sign with each new escrow, so we do have a conversation about the possibility of such fraud. 

I tell my buyers to contact the title company to get wiring instructions directly from them. I do not have this information and let the buyers know. The title company uses an encrypted site.

All the escrow companies are sending this information in an encrypted form and are even requesting cashiers checks! Its getting serious. We hare a disclosure for our buyers to sign..do not talk to us about wiring ..only directly with the escrow officer and by phone and encrypted form of communication.

Scary.

Annette,

Those darn Russians are having a field day in America, what are they not doing to us.  3 years ago our bank was aware of this, and when we opened an account in Florida branch with a partner, everyone needed to FEDEX an original signature before any transaction could take place to receive wire transfers.  A.  

I thought that Gmail had the highest encryption level of them all. AOL the lowest. We tried to find that out a few years ago when we were deciding which would be a more secure email for credit reports.

I use gmail, secure or not.

I like the advice from Bob Crane.  

I think no emails are secure these days - we have title companies and lenders sending things in password protected emails programs and we do warn our clients about the wire fraud issue. -Kasey

I tell my clients that I will tell them when and where to send money and NO one else

Buyer can wait for snail mail package from escrow with wiring instructions. Buyer should call escrow and confirm bank account number, or have lender help them do it for closing funds. Earnest money check or cashier's check the Realtor can call escrow or title as to where to bring in person and get reciept. If buyer is to wire or ACH funds to escrow/title (depending on state - maybe attorney trust account) CALL and double check account number.  I'm seeing crazy emails about docusign, dropbox, and escrow and title HACKS - don't open any attachments unless you speak with sender first. Organized crime in several places has ways to see a Borrower's credit has been pulled and find their emails, thus begins the fraud.  Escrow encrypted doesn't mean it is the right account, these crooks encrytp theirs as well. Go back to older practices

Had it happen to a seller. The Buyer attorney did not catch the scam. We got the FBI involved quickly and were able to retrieve the Seller's proceeds within 2-weeks. The Buyer's attorney would have had to reimburse the seller if the FBI didn't stop the wire transfer

It's not the service that's insecure, it's the people using it that don't practice basic security (looking at addresses, etc.).  If it comes from a trusted source, there is no reason not to have the account and routing number on the same form.  A phone call to confirm to a pre-established number is a good measure.

Fred Griffin nailed this one!

We need to go back to good old cash.

There are ways to keep wired funds secure. This is not a new issue. As for email servers... they are all equally unsecure if you ask me.

Annette Lawrence , Palm Harbor, FL 727-420-4041 - indeed it is rising. And we need to educate our clients.

We advise our buyers to always call escrow prior to wiring funds to verify the wiring instructions received came from them rather than some hacker.

We use encrypted emails through our escrows dept.s and wire fraud disclosures.

In California there is an advisory on this subject that we provide to our clients to sign for acknowledgment - it's an important topic. 

The key is to discuss such issues with the buyer and to not simply follow such instructions without verbal confirmation with the relevant sending party.

I mail the agent deliver earnest money to my title company now because of this.

If people would just do due diligence they wouldn't be taken advantage of - none of my buyers has experienced any type of fraudulent activity nor has any of my sellers!

wow be careful out there

Yep. Everyone needs to be cautious of where they send money.

Verbal confirmation is unfortunately necessary in today's world!

I like to talk to them. In person, pick up the phone and tell them i am sending you this now. I do give warnings to my clients who may not be aware of the many scams out there

Be careful.