So Many Scams, So Little Time

If your inbox is like mine, you get a million emails a day asking you to click a link for some urgent thing. And usually, you just brush this aside as silly spam. No way you’re falling for the old “Prince in need of money” scam again! Right?

But what happens when it seems more real? Lately I’ve started getting scam emails that appear to come from actual title companies sending me closing documents. Luckily, I always check the incoming email and there is usually a weird tell that shows me this is a scam. But I imagine if I click on it, they’ll steal my password or something fun like that.

One of my clients received an email with wiring instructions as she was on the way to the closing. This was odd because she had already told title she was bringing a cashier’s check. Upon further investigation the wiring instructions were really similar to the title company but off by a digit. If she hadn’t already gotten the cashier’s check, she might have sent the wire and lost all her money.

I went to a listing appointment with the sweetest older woman you could ever meet. We discussed preparing her home for the market and she let me know that she had received calls from people pretending to be politicians. They of course asked for money and when she said no, they suddenly shouted threats of violence against her family naming their schools, addresses etc. Scared, she sent them information that let to them empty her entire savings account – her life savings. Gone.

How about this one – You’ve been showing a client homes for months and months in person. They find the home they love and you go under contract. Suddenly the earnest money check bounces and the buyer and even the lender you had spoken with numerous times disappear. Phone numbers you used multiple times now are disconnected. These are people you met multiple times in person! What was the scam here?? This did not happen to me, luckily. It did happen to another agent and really messed up a transaction.

The moral of the story is be vigilant and double and triple check information. A mistake can be devastating. Title sends you something? Call your agent. Get something weird in the mail? Call your agent! Make sure numbers are correct. This is a really odd time and the scams are definitely going beyond simple requests for money to unlock riches from a long-lost cousin’s uncle.