Wire Fraud at Closing: 3 Steps to Protect Your Closing Funds

Wire fraud has become the most financially devastating crime targeting home buyers and sellers — and almost every loss is preventable.

More than 13,000 people lost over $213 million to real estate wire fraud in 2020 alone, a 380% increase since 2017, according to FBI data cited by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR).^[2] By 2024, FBI-tracked annual losses from real estate wire fraud had reached roughly $500 million, with criminals increasingly using AI-generated voice and email impersonation to defeat traditional verification.^[5]

These are not the obvious phishing emails you can spot in a second. Scammers compromise the email accounts of buyers, sellers, agents, or title company employees, then quietly read upcoming closing threads — names, dates, dollar amounts, the rhythm of how the deal is moving.^[1] When the wire instruction is about to go out, they send a revised version that looks identical to the legitimate one. Same signature block. Same language. The only difference is often a single letter added or removed from the sender's email address.^[1]

Why you're a target

In Florida, the threat is especially acute. First-time buyers are three times more likely to fall victim than experienced buyers, according to a 2025 Florida Realtors State of Wire Fraud Report.^[1] That tracks with the conditions of a first purchase: inexperience, urgency, and the emotional weight of writing the largest check of your life.

Sellers are not safe either. Scammers increasingly impersonate sellers — particularly on vacant land or non-homesteaded properties owned by out-of-state residents — listing the property, finding a buyer, and trying to abscond with the proceeds before anyone realizes the rightful owner had nothing to do with the sale.^[1]

The aggregate picture is stark: one in 20 real estate transactions experiences a wire fraud attempt, with collective losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year.^[1] More than one in four consumers report being targeted during their closing. The median loss for victims is $70,000 — whether that is a buyer's down payment or a seller's net proceeds.^[3]

The conversation your agent might not be having

Sixty percent of consumers say they received little or no education about real estate fraud from their agent, title agency, or attorney.^[3] Yet 71% believe it is someone else's job to warn them. That gap is what scammers are pricing in.

"A fraudster took your email credentials and sent me fake emails that resulted in me losing my entire life savings" — that is how CertifID CEO Tyler Adams predicts future lawsuits will read.^[3] He is not wrong. A 2018 Kansas case set the precedent: a jury found a real estate agent and her brokerage 85% liable after a buyer lost $196,622 to fraudulent wire instructions the agent had forwarded. The agent denied sending the email. A federal court upheld the verdict and ordered the agent and brokerage to pay $167,129 in damages.^[3]

Agents are often the most trusted voice in a transaction. They are also, increasingly, the source of fraudulent communications — because the scammers have already compromised their inbox.^[3]

The disclosure you'll probably sign — and won't read

Most state realtor associations now require buyers and sellers to initial a wire-fraud disclosure somewhere in the closing packet — a one-page form warning about email-based fraud and telling you to verify wire instructions by phone. The form does its legal job. It documents that you were warned.

It almost never does its consumer job.

By the time the disclosure lands in front of you, it is buried in fifty to a hundred pages of paperwork: the purchase contract, agency disclosures, loan estimate, lead-paint forms, HOA documents, inspection contingencies, seller's property disclosure. Most buyers and sellers do not read the contract end to end, let alone the stack around it. The wire-fraud warning — often two paragraphs, visually indistinguishable from every other "initial here" form — gets initialed in five seconds and forgotten.

Pull it out of the stack the moment you see it. Read it. The instruction inside is the same one in this article: never trust emailed wire instructions without verbal verification on a phone number you sourced yourself. The form is your state association's lawyers putting it in writing so no one can claim later that you weren't warned.

Three steps that actually prevent losses

1. Call before you wire — using a number you know is real. Never rely solely on wire instructions sent by email. Call the title company or attorney using a phone number from your purchase agreement, their official website, or a business card you received in person — not a number embedded in an email or in an unsolicited call.^[1][2]

2. Verify the account details verbally before sending anything. On that call, confirm the routing number and account name out loud with someone you trust. If the wire instructions arrived by email, treat the email as a starting point for the conversation, not the final answer.^[2]

3. Set a code word with your agent up front. Establish a code word at the very start of your transaction. Any legitimate communication from your agent should be able to produce it on request. Scammers won't have it.^[2]

If you've already wired — act within hours

If you suspect funds have gone to a fraudulent account, contact your bank immediately and request a wire recall.^[1] Speed is everything. Funds are often moved within hours and routed overseas, where recovery is difficult — but not impossible if you act fast.^[1]

Then file a report with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and notify local law enforcement.^[1] Document everything: screenshots of every email, copies of wire confirmations, and any communication with your bank.

The bottom line

Wire fraud is a solved problem in the sense that almost every loss is avoidable. The risk drops dramatically when buyers and sellers verify wire instructions through a trusted phone call rather than relying on emailed instructions alone. Scammers count on urgency, emotion, and the assumption that someone else is watching out for you — your agent, your title company, that two-paragraph disclosure you initialed without reading. None of them are.

Before you send any money at closing, make the call.