{"id":65636,"date":"2019-11-13T21:37:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=65636"},"modified":"2019-11-13T21:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:37:14","slug":"cybersecurity-real-estate-scams-expanding-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=65636","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity Real Estate Scams Expanding Quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The FBI expects cyber-criminals to steal more than six trillion dollars globally by 2021, according to the hacker-author of \u201cCatch Me If You Can.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 \u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d author Frank Abagnale spoke about cybersecurity at the National Association of Realtors\u00ae (NAR)\u2019 2019 Realtors Conference & Expo in San Francisco last week. Abagnale, who went to federal prison before spending 43 years working with the FBI, was the inspiration for the 2002 movie named after his autobiography, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

Abagnale said that the FBI expects more than six trillion dollars in cybercrimes to be committed globally by 2021. He raised a specific warning about international phishing scams, a trend which has intensified over the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery weekday in the United States, five thousand phishing emails are sent out, coming from more than 115 countries around the world,\u201d Abagnale said. \u201cThese emails are getting extremely sophisticated,\u201d with total losses exceeding $15 billion annually. \u201cBut the answer (to this problem) is very old fashioned. No matter what email you get, you need to call and verify that email.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abagnale said that agents who send emails from their personal accounts \u2013 particularly when the email mentions wire instructions \u2013 are leaving their clients vulnerable to being hacked or exploited.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Realtors, we need to send these emails from secure sites \u2013 your company\u2019s site, which has technology built in to keep these things from happening,\u201d Abagnale said.<\/p>\n

In his current role, Abagnale produces resources designed to combat and identify white-collar crimes on a weekly basis, tools which are available to the public at no cost. Abagnale referred attendees to his website,\u00a0Abagnale.com<\/a>, in order to access this information.<\/p>\n

Abagnale made a number of points during his presentation. He noted the vulnerabilities of social media while offering insight on things as simple \u2013 but not necessarily intuitive \u2013 as the only effective type of paper shredder \u2013 a security micro cut shredder. He talked about the perils of debit cards and the importance of a new federal law allowing Americans to freeze and unfreeze their credit at no cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe complain all the time that people are stealing our identity, but in the meantime we are telling people everything about us,\u201d he told hundreds of Realtors in attendance. \u201cOne day we\u2019ll wake up and realize that social media was a bad mistake, because the truth is when you start controlling the minds of two billion people and what they read and what they think, you are going down some serious, serious bad roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to FBI data, about 11,300 people were victims of wire fraud in the real estate and rental sector in 2018, representing a 17% increase over 2017. Those losses totaled more than $150 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the fastest-growing cybercrimes in the U.S. is real estate wire fraud,\u201d said NAR President John Smaby. \u201cIt is so critical for our members to stay on top of the latest trends within the cybercrime world so we can be a step ahead of those who seek to exploit our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highest reported fraud in real estate in 2017 was Business Email Compromise\/Email Account Compromise. In these crimes, fraudsters assume the identity of the title, real estate agent or closing attorney, and forge the person\u2019s email and other details about the transaction. The scammers will then send an email to the unknowing buyer and provide new wire instructions to the criminal\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n

NAR\u2019s Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Affairs Lesley Muchow recently told The New York Times that there are \u201cred flags\u201d that can help Realtors increase their chances of accurately identifying scams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWire instructions are unlikely to change at the last minute, so consumers should be especially suspicious when receiving last-minute changes to wire instructions,\u201d Muchow said, reiterating Abagnale\u2019s statements on Friday. \u201cAgain: Verify. Verify. Verify. Consumers need to take the extra step to talk to someone they know to verify everything before any money is wired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2019 Florida Realtors\u00ae<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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The FBI expects cyber-criminals to steal more than six trillion dollars globally by 2021, according to the hacker-author of \u201cCatch Me If You Can.\u201d SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 \u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d author Frank Abagnale spoke about cybersecurity at the National Association of Realtors\u00ae (NAR)\u2019 2019 Realtors Conference & Expo in San Francisco last week. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[9,59,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65636"}],"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=65636"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65652,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65636\/revisions\/65652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}