Wire Fraud at Closing: What Every Home Buyer and Seller Must Know Right Now

If you received an email today saying your down payment instructions had changed and you needed to wire money to a new account, would you know how to verify it was real? If you paused, you should. That hesitation is exactly what scammers count on, and right now, they are increasingly targeting home buyers and sellers at closing.

Real Estate Wire Fraud (REWF) is not a rare nightmare that happens to other people. The FBI reported nearly $175 million in losses from real estate-related fraud in 2024, with average fraud claims exceeding $143,000 and refinance-related fraud claims averaging $207,000. ^[6] This is not a hypothetical risk sitting somewhere in the future. It is a current, active threat landing on your closing table.

How the Scam Works

REWF is a subcategory of Business Email Compromise (BEC), a category of fraud the FBI defines as a sophisticated scam targeting both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests. ^[2] In a typical REWF scam, you receive an email from a criminal impersonating your real estate agent, title company, or lender with instructions on how to wire your payment. The email looks completely legitimate. ^[1] The sender address might differ by a single letter. The wire instructions name a familiar bank. Everything reads exactly as you would expect.

This is not normal. No legitimate party at your closing will send new wiring instructions by email alone without a secondary verification step.

The numbers tell you why this is worth taking seriously. Between October 2013 and October 2022, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 137,601 victim complaints of BEC scams in the United States totaling $17,323,435,141 in losses. ^[1] From 2020 to 2022 alone, real estate nexus BEC scams showed a 72 percent increase in monetary losses, with victim counts growing from 1,796 to 2,284. ^[1] Between December 2022 and December 2023, global exposed losses from BEC scams increased by 9 percent. ^[2]

Why Your Closing Is a Target

Real estate transactions are unusually attractive to scammers for one simple reason: the money is large, time-sensitive, and wire-dependent. When you are buying a home, you are moving five or six figures in a narrow window, often under pressure from a contract deadline. That combination is exactly what criminals look for.

The FBI has reported BEC scams in all 50 states and 186 countries, with over 140 countries receiving fraudulent transfers. ^[2] In 2023, international banks in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong most often acted as an intermediary stop for funds, followed by China, Mexico, and the UAE. ^[2] Once your money moves internationally, recovering it becomes significantly harder.

The average loss per victim is not small. In 2024, the average real estate fraud claim exceeded $143,000, and refinance-related fraud claims averaged $207,000. ^[6] For most buyers and sellers, that is years of savings gone in minutes.

Why the Normal Closing Process Has a Gap

Here is what most buyers and sellers never learn until it is too late: every party at your closing has a financial incentive to keep the deal moving. Your real estate agent earns a commission when you close. Your lender earns fees at closing. The title company, the settlement attorney, the mortgage broker, they are all paid when the deal completes. That structure creates a real misalignment. When you ask questions, slow down, or push back on a rushed wire instruction, you may be the only person in the room who has no financial stake in protecting your money. ^[1]

The FBI recommends that you verify any request for changes in account information using secondary channels and two-factor authentication. ^[2] The problem is that most buyers do not know to ask for this. They receive an email that looks official, they trust the parties they have been working with, and they send the money. By the time they realize something is wrong, the funds have moved.

What to Do Before You Send Any Wire

The FBI's prevention guidance is straightforward, and you should require every professional in your transaction to follow it:

Verify independently. Do not use the phone number, email address, or contact information in an incoming message. Look up your real estate agent, title company, and lender directly and call them using a number you find on their official website or your loan documents. ^[2]

Call before you wire, not after. A five-minute phone call to your title company's verified number can prevent a six-figure loss. Confirm the wiring instructions verbally. This is normal. Title companies are accustomed to this request. ^[1]

Watch for last-minute changes. Any email that arrives hours before closing changing your wiring instructions is a red flag. Legitimate parties rarely change wire instructions at the last minute. ^[1]

Enable two-factor authentication on every account involved in your transaction, including your email, your lender portal, and any title or escrow platform you access. ^[2]

Scrutinize every email address. Look at the full sender address, not just the display name. One extra letter, one different domain, is how scammers impersonate real contacts. ^[2]

What to Do If Your Wire Is Gone

If you sent a wire and something feels wrong, act immediately. Time is the single most important factor in recovery. Contact your financial institution right away and request a recall of the funds along with any necessary indemnification documents. ^[2] File a complaint with the FBI's IC3 at www.ic3.gov as soon as possible. ^[2] The FBI may be able to assist both your financial institution and law enforcement in freezing funds before they leave the country.

IC3 data shows that victims who act quickly, particularly before funds leave domestic accounts, may be able to recover significant portions of what was stolen. Banks, under anti-money laundering requirements, are often able to locate and identify fraudulent accounts. ^[1] But every hour counts. Once funds move internationally, recovery becomes substantially harder.

One thing worth knowing before you close: some cyber insurance policies do not cover real estate wire fraud, which means if your coverage does not apply, you may be required to pay the intended recipient of the fraudulent transfer in addition to your original loss. ^[1] Check your homeowner's or renter's insurance policy now and ask your agent whether wire fraud coverage exists.

What This Means for You

Wire fraud at closing is not a tech problem or a sophisticated hacking problem. It is a trust exploitation problem. Criminals count on the fact that you trust the people helping you close on your home, and that you will not think to verify a last-minute email. The reason REWF losses keep rising is not that the scams are undetectable. It is that buyers and sellers do not know to ask the specific questions that stop them.

The gap in your closing is this: you are the only person at the table with a 100 percent financial stake in protecting your money. The agents, lenders, and title companies are compensated when you close. That structural misalignment means the question "is this wire instruction legitimate?" is yours alone to ask. Nobody else is paid to ask it for you.

What You Can Do This Week

1. Call your title company using the number on your closing disclosure or their official website and ask: "What is your verbal confirmation protocol for wire transfers?" If they cannot answer that question clearly, that is a problem worth naming.

2. Enable two-factor authentication on the email account tied to your real estate transaction. Go to your email settings, find the security or sign-in options, and activate two-factor authentication today. ^[2]

3. Before closing, get the wire instructions in writing from your title company, then call the verified phone number on your closing disclosure to confirm them verbally. Write down who you spoke with, the date, and the confirmation number.

4. Tell everyone buying or selling a home in your life: no legitimate party will email you new wiring instructions without a secondary verification step. Forward that warning to them now.

5. File a complaint at www.ic3.gov if you ever receive a suspicious email related to a real estate transaction. Even failed attempts should be reported. The FBI uses these reports to track scams and may be able to freeze funds in active cases.

If something feels wrong when you are about to wire money at closing, trust that feeling. Pause. Call. Verify. Then send.