CertifID now is protecting all wire transfers that are initiated by buyers in real estate transactions for up to $1 million for a single fee of $4.95, the company announced.
The company said its expanded coverage includes wire transfers relating to earnest money deposits as well as transfers required to fully consummate the transaction.
“Real estate transactions are ripe for business email compromise scams due to the number of parties involved in a transaction, high per-wire transfer amounts and the ability to easily profile active transactions online,” CertifID co-founder and CEO Thomas Cronkright said in a release. “The greatest threat is to a buyer who is required to wire funds for the closing of a home.
“Armed with transaction level details that they have obtained after obtaining access to someone’s email, the cyber perpetrators deploy social engineering strategies that convince a buyer to wire their life savings away to a fraudster who is posing as the title or settlement company,” Cronkright said. “This is simply unacceptable and it is our mission to prevent it.”
Camille Wright Brannon, CEO of Atlanta-based real estate law firm Campbell and Brannon, agreed that more must be done to protect buyers from wire fraud.
“Buyers often send multiple wires in connection with a real estate closing,” Brannon said. “Earnest money deposits are sent in connection with the buy/sell agreement and once it comes time to close on the sale, buyers often wire funds from multiple accounts to meet their cash to close obligations.
“The challenge we face as industry professionals is that we don’t know when or from how many accounts a buyer may wire funds – this is activity they uniquely control, and it exposes them to being tricked into sending funds to fraudulent accounts,” Brannon said.