Whether you read the title of this message in a Steve Harvey voice or not – the latest information about wire fraud education and our consumers is clear. As an industry, we still aren’t talking about it enough, at least not with the people who need to hear it the loudest. How did we come to that conclusion?
Looking at this 2024 State of Wire Fraud Report from our friends at CertifID, you may be asking, “How can that be? I get warnings about wire fraud all the time.” While that may be true, these warnings aren’t reaching the people who need to hear them the most: our buyers and sellers.
Consider some of the results of this survey of 650 recent homebuyers.
- One in four people said they received some sort of suspicious communication regarding their real estate transaction. Additionally, 10 percent of respondents stated they were the target of a specific fraud attempt.
- More than half of people (51%) said they were only somewhat or not aware at all of the dangers of wire fraud before closing.
- About a quarter of homebuyers said they received no materials from their real estate agent or title company about the dangers of wire fraud.
The bottom line is that fraudsters are targeting real estate transactions more than any of us would like to admit, and we need to switch up our tactics when it comes to hammering home these warnings with our clients. We must all remember that scammers are always looking to make some fast money. It’s on all of us to make sure they strike out.