{"id":36919,"date":"2016-03-22T14:12:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=36919"},"modified":"2016-03-22T14:12:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T18:12:15","slug":"a-warning-to-your-buyers-closing-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=36919","title":{"rendered":"A Warning to Your Buyers: Closing Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<div id=\"op-content\">\n<div id=\"resize\">\n<div class=\"body-content\">\n<div>\n<p>The Federal Trade Commission and the National Association of REALTORS\u00ae issued a warning to consumers to be mindful of a growing mortgage closing phishing scam that could leave buyers with no down payment.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Avoid Falling Victim to a Phishing Scheme<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The FTC provides some of the following tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Never e-mail your financial information. E-mail is not considered secure.<\/li>\n<li>Check the security of the website. For any financial information you provide over the web, check that the site is secure. The URL should begin with https.<\/li>\n<li>Watch what you click on. Do not click a link in an e-mail to go to an organization\u2019s site. Instead, look up the real URL and type it into the web address yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Be cautious about opening attachments and downloading any files from e-mails.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure your operating system, browser, and security software are up-to-date.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/blog\/scammers-phish-mortgage-closing-costs\" target=\"_blank\">FTC<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the warning, FTC and NAR say that scammers are hacking into the e-mail accounts of consumers and real estate professionals in order to access information about the closing date. The hackers will then send an e-mail to the buyer and pose as the real estate professional or title company. In the e-mail, hackers will say there\u2019s been a \u201clast minute change\u201d to the wiring instructions for the funds for closing. They will then instruct the buyers to send the funds to a different account, which really belongs to them.<\/p>\n<p>A buyers\u2019 bank account could be cleared out in a \u201cmatter of minutes,\u201d and they aren\u2019t likely to get it back, according to the FTC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIf you\u2019re buying a home and get an e-mail with money-wiring instructions, STOP,\u201d the FTC posted in its bulletin. \u201cE-mail is not a secure way to send financial information, and your real estate professional or title company should know that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NAR is working with the Federal Trade Commission to warn consumers about this latest scam targeting buyers during closing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBuyers should be wary of sending financial information over e-mail, downloading attachments, or responding to e-mail requests to wire money in a real estate transaction,\u201d warns NAR President Tom Salomone.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.housingwire.com\/articles\/36549\" target=\"_blank\">Homebuyer Beware: FTC, REALTORS\u00ae Issue Warning on Mortgage Closing Cost Phishing Scheme<\/a>,\u201d HousingWire (March 18, 2016) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/blog\/scammers-phish-mortgage-closing-costs\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Trade Commission<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--EndFragment-->&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Trade Commission and the National Association of REALTORS\u00ae issued a warning to consumers to be mindful of a growing mortgage closing phishing scam that could leave buyers with no down payment. Avoid Falling Victim to a Phishing Scheme The FTC provides some of the following tips: Never e-mail your financial information. E-mail is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}