Security and scams

Real estate is a standing target for wire fraud, because the transactions are large and the timing is public. Two things protect you: two-step verification on your accounts, and a habit of confirming money instructions by phone.

Turn on two-step verification

Do this today if you have not already. It is the single change that stops most account takeovers.

Your email runs through your own Google account rather than a company one, so this is your personal account — which makes it more important, not less, since it is also where your work mail arrives.

1. Go to myaccount.google.com/security.
2. Choose 2-Step Verification and follow the prompts.
3. Use an authenticator app or a prompt on your phone rather than text messages where you can.

Wire fraud

Before wiring funds, call the intended recipient at a number you already know is valid and confirm the instructions out loud. Do not use a phone number from the email itself.

Wire instructions that arrive by email, change at the last minute, or press for urgency are the classic pattern. Slow down and make the call — every time, including when the email looks perfect.

Warn your buyers early

Your clients are the ones most likely to be targeted, and the least likely to spot it. A buyer who has never wired money before will not question instructions that appear to come from the title company.

Tell them at the start rather than the week of closing, and put it in writing:

• Wire instructions will never be sent or changed by email.
• Before wiring anything, call the title company on a number they looked up themselves — not one from the email, and not one in an attachment.
• If anything about the instructions feels rushed or different, stop and call you.

A buyer who has heard this once from you is far harder to defraud, and it costs a sentence in your first conversation.

Spotting a bad email

• The reply-to address does not match the sender.
• The tone is urgent and discourages checking with anyone.
• A link's real destination, shown when you hover over it, is not where the text says it goes.
• It asks for a password, a code, or a payment change.

When in doubt, forward it to helpdesk@coldwellhomes.com and ask before clicking.

Reporting

• Wire fraud or attempted wire fraud: IC3, the FBI's complaint centre
• General fraud and scams: reportfraud.ftc.gov

Tell the helpdesk as well, so we can warn everyone else.