{"id":251,"date":"2017-08-28T12:02:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T16:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/?p=251"},"modified":"2018-04-24T18:20:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T22:20:32","slug":"protect-against-fraud-when-financing-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/protect-against-fraud-when-financing-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect Against Fraud When Financing a Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While signing paperwork is one of the least exciting things about buying, building or refinancing your home, the day you are set to close on a loan and move onto the next chapter in your life should be uplifting and satisfying. It wasn\u2019t such a great day for Washington, D.C. homebuyers Sean Smith and Erin Wrons when they arrived to sign papers and pick up the keys for their $1.7 million home. When the couple arrived at the Federal Title &amp; Escrow office, they were shocked to discover that the $1.57 million in funds they wired for closing was missing. The couple apparently were the victims of a phishing scam and had responded to an email requesting that they wire the funds a month prior to the closing. The title company says they were victims of a cyberattack on their information systems.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you are financing a home improvement project with a home equity loan, refinancing your current home or arranging a purchase of an existing or newly built home, the loan process can be time-consuming and sometimes confusing.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Scammers benefit here because the loan process is confusing and convoluted and consumers maybe do it a few times in a lifetime,&quot; says Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert and CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/robertsiciliano.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IDTheftSecurity.com<\/a>. &quot;They are generally unaware of the various nuances that may be red flags for a scam.&quot;<\/p>\n<p class=\"margin-bottom-80\">According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Association of Realtors, earlier this summer a scam was circulating that specifically targeted real estate transactions. The hackers would break into a consumer\u2019s or a real estate professional\u2019s email account and find out information about the closing date and other details of a transaction. Then the hacker would send an email to the borrower as if the hacker was the title company or real estate professional, with instructions to wire closing funds to a different account.<\/p>\n<h2>Protecting yourself against a scam<\/h2>\n<p>The FTC says: If you\u2019re buying a home and get an email with money-wiring instructions, STOP. Email is not a secure way to send financial information. Instead:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contact the company through a number or email address you know is real. Don\u2019t use phone numbers or links in the email.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t open email attachments, even from someone you know, unless you\u2019re expecting it. Opening attachments can put malware on your computer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&quot;The best measure of protecting oneself from a scam like this is simply to pick up the phone,&quot; says Siciliano. &quot;Call the representative that you are working with to find out if the email communications are legitimate. Don&#8217;t just trust email at face value.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Siciliano points out that most of the electronic mail processing for loans today is done via a secure server connection, where the lender and title agent require loan customers to create a login and password to open and view documents or instructions on their secure system.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;So, when the transactions are taken outside of those controlled environments consumers should always be suspect and pick up the phone,&quot; he says. &quot;I\u2019ve been involved in a half a dozen mortgages myself and not once has wiring money ever been a part of the process. Whenever wiring money is required or requested pick up the phone.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The FTC recommends the following steps to prevent phishing at all times, not just when you\u2019re financing your home.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t click on links or open attachments \u2013 even people you know could have been hacked.<\/li>\n<li>Look up a website or phone number yourself to contact a company \u2013 don\u2019t use the link or phone number from an email.<\/li>\n<li>Call a company or a friend if they are asking for personal or financial information \u2013 don\u2019t respond to an email.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the D.C. couple purchased their home with the aid of family and other funds, they are still missing their $1.57 million. Take precautions online to avoid falling victim to a similar scam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While signing paperwork is one of the least exciting things about buying, building or refinancing your home, the day you are set to close on a loan and move onto the next chapter in your life should be uplifting and satisfying. It wasn\u2019t such a great day for Washington, D.C. homebuyers Sean Smith and Erin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"coauthors":[500],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-loans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourhome1source.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}