Email from "title company" changes wire instructions on closing day
A scammer who has compromised a real estate agent, title company, or your own email account sends "updated" wire instructions for your down payment or closing funds. The new account belongs to them. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are gone in minutes.
Also known as: business email compromise (BEC), escrow wire fraud, closing day wire scam
What to do right now
- 1 Never trust wire instructions sent only by email. Always call to verify, using a phone number from a previously-trusted source — not the number in the email
- 2 Before the wire goes out, confirm the account name, routing number, and account number on the phone with someone you have spoken to in person at the title company
- 3 If you suspect the wire was already sent to a scammer, call your bank immediately and ask them to file a SWIFT recall. The first 24–72 hours give the best chance of recovery
- 4 Also call the FBI's IC3 within 24 hours — they run a Financial Fraud Kill Chain that has recovered wires
- 5 Report to the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's IC3 at https://www.ic3.gov.
Red flags
- ⚠ Wire instructions arrive by email and change at the last minute, often the day of closing
- ⚠ The sender's email is close to the real one but with a swapped letter or different domain (e.g. titleco-llc.com instead of titleco.com)
- ⚠ The email asks you to act quickly so 'closing is not delayed'
- ⚠ The new account is in a different state or city than the title company is based in
This scam is uniquely devastating because the amounts are large and the funds usually move overseas within hours. Recovery is possible but rare, and only if you act within 24–72 hours of the wire leaving your bank.
The single best defense is a simple rule: wire instructions are never accepted by email alone. Always call to confirm on a number you already have, and confirm the account details by reading them back out loud.
If your wire has already gone to a scammer: do not wait. Call your bank’s fraud line right now. Then call the FBI IC3. Then call the title company.