Rise in Wire Fraud Partially Attributed to Exhausted Homebuyers

Source: National Mortgage News

With potential buyers becoming more desperate to secure a property, the hot housing market has been a driving force in the increase in wire fraud and other Internet crime schemes, the head of a title industry verification company said.

Internet crime schemes involving business email compromise typically used to intercept wire transfers — including those used to send closing funds or loan proceeds — made up one-third of the total losses last year, a Federal Bureau of Investigations report stated.

 "The common theme with regard to residential homeownership is that there's not only this fear of missing out, but this transactional fatigue that takes place," said Tom Cronkright, its executive chairman, who also owns a title company that was victimized twice by BEC fraud.

"They're committed to closing this transaction because they know what it's taken over the last several weeks or months to get to a point where they have something that they can own," Cronkright said. "So, what it does at the end of the transaction, when everyone should be at a heightened stage of alert, that fatigue sets in."

It makes the buyer more susceptible to phishing attacks. After all, they already have been sending funds via electronic funds transfer for various items during the process.

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