MONEY

Real Estate Wire Fraud: Don’t Send Your Down Payment Without First Taking This Simple Step

A mistake can cost you thousands

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Tim Myers was about to close on a home near Fort Wayne, Ind., when the email he’d been expecting popped into his inbox. His mortgage loan officer sent wire instructions for his down payment, along with a request to send the money in the next few hours. Myers and his wife went to their Flagstar branch and wired $34,000 to a Bank of America account.

Everything seemed fine until the next day, when the title company handling the closing sent instructions for wiring the down payment through a secure portal. Myers called the company to say he had already sent the money.

Then came the awful news: He’d been scammed.

Fortunately, Myers was able to close on the property anyway, and eventually recovered the hijacked money. In many cases, victims of real estate escrow fraud never see their cash again, according to the FinCEN, the enforcement arm of the U.S. Treasury Department.

A more typical case came in 2022, when New Jersey homebuyers Jessica Madalena and Daniel Pietschnig were tricked into wiring $32,500 to a scammer. Two years later, they still haven’t recovered the money. “At first I was in shock, then it was…