Important News from the Federal Trade Commission

As a Realtor we all get a ton of emails every day of the week. From information and responses from our clients, to all sorts of info from Lenders, Inspection Services....and the list goes on & on from ancillary Real Estate businesses. The FTC just released the follow info.... On March 18 the FTC Consumer Blog issued a post focused on hackers who have been breaking into some consumers' and real estate professionals' email accounts to get information about upcoming real estate transactions. After figuring out the closing dates, the hacker sends an email to the buyer, posing as the real estate professional or Title Company. The bogus email says there has been a last minute change to the wiring instructions, and tells the buyer to wire closing costs to a different account. But it's the scammer's account. If the buyer takes the bait, their bank account could be cleared out in a matter of minutes. Often, that's money the buyer will never see again. As Realtors we all have various virus software protection on our computers, however hackers are getting extremely sophisticated and seem to get around the protections. Don't let the above scenario happen to you.