Beware of Surge on Cyber Fraud

As Real Estate industry continues to be the prime target of fraudsters, it is important that consumers are aware of how these cyber criminals are tricking their targets

and victims. These fraudsters have elevated their scamming skills by impersonating not just through emails and texts, but also through voice impersonation. 

1. Voice Impersonation - using artificial intelligence to clone and impersonate a person’s voice by calling victims & tricking them into believing that they’re talking to someone they know. The software creates a synthetic, digital copy of a unique human voice mimicking their speech patterns, accent and the person’s gender, etc. Just three seconds of audio is sufficient to clone a person’s voice. FTC the Federal Trade Commission recently released a Consumer Alert warning on the rise of “family emergency" schemes targeting parents and grandparents to wire money to a supposed child or grandchild in distress.

2. Email Impersonation - a type of phishing attack where a cyber criminal/ scammer creates an email address that looks like it came from a legitimate business or someone from your contact list, and impersonates as an employee of a company to tricking consumers into wiring/ transferring funds into a scammer's bank account for example, the fraudster sends an urgent request for change of wire instructions during a pending escrow that came from similar email except, one or 2 letters are slightly different from the original email they impersonated from. 

3. Seller Impersonation - actors or fraudsters impersonating as property owners to try to sell a property they don’t own. According to the U.S. Secret Service, there has been a significant rise in seller impersonation frauds across the nation. These fraudsters search public records to identify properties that are free and clear of mortgage loans or other liens, mainly targeting vacant land and rental properties owned by foreigners or elderly. They would use emails or texts to hire real estate agents to list the property for them, requesting for a quick closing and cash offer. They would request to sign documents through a mobile notary of their choice instead of signing in person. Once the transaction closes, the buyer’s funds would be wired to the fraudster’s bank account. Meanwhile these fraud documents would not be discovered by the county clerk’s office until months or years after the escrow have closed. 

To learn more on how to protect yourself/ or become a victim of seller impersonation fraud, visit the Federal Trade Commissions at www.ftc.gov and follow the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov

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