To avoid wire fraud when buying a house, establish verified contact information before money is due, treat every new or changed payment instruction as unverified, and confirm the recipient and account through a separate channel you independently trust. The FBI says business-email-compromise schemes can impersonate transaction participants and redirect funds. A familiar name, urgent deadline, detailed property reference, or realistic email thread does not authenticate a payment request.
Build the verification path before closing week
Record the official title or escrow company, assigned contact, office number, secure portal, lender contact, and your bank’s fraud number from independent sources. Ask the responsible closing professional how instructions will be delivered and what changes, if any, are possible. Do not wait for an urgent email to decide how verification works.
Treat changed instructions as a stop signal
Pause when an email, text, call, attachment, or portal message changes the recipient, bank, routing number, account number, payment type, timing, or communication channel. Do not verify a message by replying to it or by calling a number contained only in the same message. Use the known contact path recorded earlier.
Verify the participant, the instruction, and the destination
Confirm the organization and individual, the exact transaction, the amount or payment purpose, and every destination detail through an independently established channel. Ask the closing professional and financial institution what confirmation they require. Your real-estate licensee can coordinate communication but should not independently certify a bank account.
Protect transaction information
Use the secure method designated by the responsible institution, enable multifactor authentication where available, inspect full sender addresses, and avoid forwarding sensitive instructions through unnecessary accounts. Limit who receives the closing timeline, identity documents, signatures, and payment details. Public listing facts or private transaction details can both make an impersonation attempt sound credible.
Respond immediately to a suspected transfer
Contact the sending financial institution at once and request its fraud or recall process. Then contact the verified title or escrow professional, local law enforcement as appropriate, and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Time can matter; do not spend hours debating whether an email looked authentic before alerting the institutions that may be able to act.
Example: an urgent account change arrives
A buyer receives a message that appears to come from the closing contact and says the destination account changed. The buyer does not click the attachment or call the number in that email. The buyer calls the previously verified office number, reaches the known contact, confirms the message is not authorized, alerts the bank, preserves the message, and follows the institution’s reporting instructions.
FAQ
Are emailed wire instructions safe?
Email alone does not authenticate payment instructions. Confirm the responsible organization, contact, and complete destination through a separately established channel before sending funds.
What if the closing instructions change?
Pause and verify the change through independently sourced contact information. Do not rely on the phone number, link, or reply path supplied only in the change request.
What should I do if I already sent money to the wrong account?
Contact your financial institution immediately, ask for its fraud and recall process, notify the verified closing professional, and report the incident through the appropriate law-enforcement channels, including IC3.
Primary sources and limits
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Business Email Compromise
- FBI IC3, Protect Your Property from Illegal Sales Through Parcel Owner Impersonation
- FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report
General education only. A website, email, text, caller ID, attachment, portal message, social profile, estimate, contract, license screenshot, bank detail, title, badge, vehicle, testimonial, prior relationship, or urgent deadline does not by itself authenticate a person, company, professional status, payment instruction, account, mover, broker, carrier, qualified intermediary, or receiving agent. Verify the current identity, authority, regulator or institutional record, independently sourced contact path, documents, account-change process, recipient, scope, consent, deadlines, custody or payment controls, escalation owner, and written acknowledgement with the responsible financial institution, title or escrow company, carrier, regulator, brokerage, qualified intermediary, CPA, attorney, insurer, law-enforcement agency, or other qualified professional as appropriate. No individualized legal, tax, contract, engineering, environmental, lending, insurance, privacy, compliance, securities, or investment advice is provided.
Related: organizing the closing file, reviewing the Loan Estimate and payment context, contact You Decide Realty.