Wire fraud in real estate doesn’t depend on clever technology. It depends on a convincing email arriving at the moment a buyer is about to send money, and on nobody stopping to make a phone call. That’s good news, because the defense is a habit, not a tool. Run the same short routine on every deal and you close the gaps a fraudster relies on.
This protocol is general practice, not legal advice. Your brokerage, your escrow or title company and your state may have their own required steps; follow those first.
Why a routine beats a warning
Many agents already warn clients about wire fraud — once, in a long email near the start of the deal. By closing week, that warning is buried under dozens of messages. Fraud attempts tend to arrive late, look urgent and come from an address that looks right. A one-time warning isn’t built for that moment. A routine is, because it repeats the rule exactly when money is about to move.
Day one: set the rule and the number
When the contract is signed, do two things.
- Tell the client the rule, in one sentence they’ll remember: no money moves based on an email or text, ever, without a phone call to a number we already trust.
- Give them the escrow or title office’s phone number from a source you trust — the company’s official website, your own records, or a number you’ve confirmed with the office — and tell them it’s the only number to use for wiring questions.
You can say it like this: “Before you wire anything — earnest money or closing funds — call escrow at this number and confirm the instructions out loud. Not a number from an email, even one that looks like it’s from me. If anyone ever emails you new wiring details, assume it’s fraud and call me.”
Before any money moves: the two-minute call
Every time money is about to be sent — the earnest money deposit, closing funds, a seller’s proceeds — the same check happens:
- The client calls the escrow office at the trusted number, not one from the instructions.
- They confirm the account details and the amount out loud.
- They send the wire only after that call.
- Right after sending, they call again to confirm the money arrived.
That’s the two minutes. It feels like a lot of ceremony for a routine payment, which is exactly why it works: fraud relies on people skipping the ceremony because the email looked fine.
When “new instructions” arrive
A typical setup is a message saying the account has changed, or that there’s a last-minute problem and funds must go somewhere else today. Treat any change to wiring instructions as fraudulent until it has been confirmed by phone with the escrow office at the trusted number. That applies even when the message appears to come from you, the lender or the escrow officer, and even when it arrives inside a real email thread.
Warning signs worth naming to clients:
- A change of bank or account at the last minute.
- Urgency, or pressure to keep the change quiet.
- An email address or phone number that’s slightly different from earlier messages.
- Instructions that arrive only by email or text, with no call.
Your side of the routine
The protocol isn’t only for clients. A few habits on your end close gaps too:
- Don’t send wiring instructions yourself. Let them come from the escrow or title company, and point the client back to the phone call.
- Use two-step sign-in on your email and keep your passwords unique; a compromised inbox is one way these attempts start.
- Repeat the rule in every message that mentions money, not just the first one.
- When a client sounds unsure, call them. A thirty-second conversation costs far less than a mistake.
If something goes wrong
Speed matters. If a client thinks they’ve wired money to the wrong place, they should call their bank immediately and ask about recalling the wire, then call the escrow office at the trusted number and report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov). Then follow your brokerage’s process for incidents. For a version of these rules written for clients, see our wire-fraud checklist guide.