What is Wire Fraud - YouTube

hey everybody you may have this question in your mind we get this an absolute ton

hey Mark what's wire fraud I see this disclosure that you're having me take a

look at what is wire fraud and that's what we're gonna talk about right now

hey what's going on everybody it is Mark with my Front Range living powered by

Remax integrity I am a full-time real estate agent here in Colorado Springs

and before we dive into today's topic of wire fraud I have a huge huge favor to

ask of you one of our friends Joy Smith who is

out there joy I know you're watching right now thank you so much for

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recommendations so let's talk about wire fraud wire fraud is a big big deal right

now in several different facets but especially in the real estate market

wire fraud came about because wiring expedites the process a lot of times so

when you used to have have to go and get a cashier's check or you need to

drop off a check or anything like that you can now wire funds okay so you can

wire funds for the earnest money you can wire funds for the down payment or the

money that you're supposed to bring the closing wiring funds is how people how

sellers get their proceeds at closing so obviously some not-so-nice folks picked

up on that and they immediately got to work on how they could get your money by

doing nothing so wire fraud now exists it wasn't really well regulated for the

longest time you were just like hey we can

expedite this wiring you just hey type in this information and immediately goes

to this other account where it's supposed to go and that's great

so what these bad guys have done is hey send us your information well the first

thing that you need to know is you should never ever ever ever under any

circumstances electronically send any of that information okay so wire fraud

obviously encompasses far more than just the real estate industry but for the

real estate industry title is going to say hey we need some wiring instructions

so you can send your down payment the money that you're going to put down to

the lender or the financial institutions that need those resources so then what

happens is those bad guys would come in and say yeah just send that to us via

email title companies will never ever ask for that electronically you're going

to talk to someone on the phone and it's different for everything but an example

being the title company is going to reach out and say hey you're going to be

talking to this person specifically at this number at this institution and a

lot of times what I recommend to our clients is that's cool call that person

and just say hey here's a question that I'm going to ask you and I need to know

what the answer is so just like a password hey what's your favorite color

and that title person will say plaid cool you're my person I'm supposed to

talk to you and you're going to give them that information over the phone

never electronically because thieves man those cyber thieves are pretty intense

and really really sharp so you're never gonna give wiring instructions

electronically it's always gonna be over the phone

okay so for an example that buyer is going to work specifically with title

hey how much money am i suppo you working with your lender I need X amount

of dollars that goes to the title company and you wire that accordingly so

adversely the seller isn't going to give any information until they get to

the closing table so if you're selling your home and you're expecting those

proceeds you bring your account number and all of that information and you're

going to fill that information while you're with the title

representative at the table to ensure that none of that happens okay so

there's a lot of different safeguards to ensure that your resources stay in your

pocket so I want to give you some examples of how wiring has gone wrong

and why it's important to follow up with the professionals that you're working

with in any transaction okay you may have noticed on one of our last

videos I managed associations for a while and they're not one of the

associations that I manage but we heard of an association that went through a

hail damage claim and they anticipated having eight hundred thousand dollars

well again the whole reason that wiring exists is you can expedite the process

on a lot of this stuff okay so the association was like sweet wire us the

funds and that way we can get to work even faster than we originally thought

we could well unfortunately something was delivered electronically and it was

not to the right financial institution it was a cybercriminal

eight hundred thousand dollars gone so this association is not only in

disrepair but now that are out eight hundred thousand dollars because they

thought they did the right thing not the right thing don't ever give it

electronically another thing that we have heard about is when sellers and

again this was years ago and it's now changed to the point where sellers don't

give any other information until they're at the closing table some sellers said

oh yeah you need my wiring information so I can get paid tomorrow at closing

typey typey typey off their information goes and it was not to title it was to a

cybercriminal and so the people who just sold their house not only don't have the

house they didn't get the proceeds at their house either it's just a bad bad

deal so anytime you're looking at wiring funds make sure that you're working with

the professional in that transaction an example being if I am representing you

in selling your home I'm going to tell you don't give me any information and

nobody at title needs information until the day you walk into closing with me

and then I will be with you to let you know that it's okay

to give this i this information to this person and on the other side of

that coin if I am representing you as a buyer okay

this is that's a pretty big chunk of money too because that's your down

payment on the home after you have worked with your lender and you know

what those final numbers are I'll get a copy you'll get a copy I will verify

with you who your contact is at title so you are comfortable giving them that

information and I'll walk you through that but again I don't want any of your

financial information I don't need any of your financial information and quite

frankly neither does 99.9 percent of the title company or anybody else involved

in transaction there's only one person that needs it and we're gonna make sure

that you get it so always work with your professional in any transaction where

you are wiring resources hey as always we hope you found value in today's video

wire fraud is a big big big deal so if you have any questions at all please

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