Information Security and Wire Transfer Fraud are critical topics for the land title insurance and settlement industry. Wire Transfer Fraud is a threat to every title operation regardless of size, location or years in business. ALTA’s priority is helping you protect your systems, plan for a rapid response in case of an incident, and prepare your employees, clients and customers to be aware and vigilant.
Industry Standard Policies and Tools
- ALTA Outgoing Wire Preparation Checklist: Use this checklist as a best practice for verifying outgoing wire information.
- ALTA Rapid Response Plan for Wire Fraud Incidents: Use this tool to customize your action plan when a wire fraud attempt occurs.
- Video: How To Complete an IC3 Report. Watch the video to see how easy it is to help law enforcement gather information.
- ALTA Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan: Use this tool to help your team to establish and maintain secure systems and be prepared to act quickly if an incident occurs. Leverage these resources to implement Step 1: Preparation:
- ALTA Cyber System Overview: Use this narrative to improve your understanding of a Cyber System Inventory, why it is important to Cybersecurity efforts, and how to create and maintain your company's inventory.
- ALTA Cyber System Inventory Workbook: Use this model workbook to create and customize your company's inventory.
- ALTA Business Impact Analysis: Use this guide to examine your software applications, determine which resources are critical to your operation, and discover when to add resources to minimize the business impact of downtime.
Employee Training and Awareness
- Monitor and Improve Employee Skills.
Consider a phishing security test for all of your employees. These companies can help: - Security Planner: https://securityplanner.org
- PhishMe: https://phishme.com/free
- KnowBe4: https://www.knowbe4.com/resources
- Webinars to Watch:
- Data Security Essentials: Strategies to Protect Non-public Personal Information (Download copy of presentation)
- Fortify Your Business: Lock Down Data and Protect Client Funds (Download copy of presentation)
- Safeguarding Escrow Trust Accounts
- Best Practices: Protecting Non-public Personal Information (Download copy of presentation)
- Fraud and Your Escrow/Trust Accounts (Download copy of presentation)
Resources for Your Clients and Consumers
- Wire Fraud Tips Video: Share this 1-minute video with homebuyers so they know how to protect their money.
- ALTA Wire Fraud Video: This 2-minute video provides four tips on how consumers can protect their money and offers advice on what to do if they have been targeted by a scam. Link to this video from your website, include in your email or share on social media.
- ALTA Wire Fraud Infographic: ALTA has produced this Rack Card explaining Wire Fraud. ALTA Members can brand the infographic with their own information at the ALTAprints website.
- ALTA Wire Fraud PowerPoint for Consumer Education: (Member-only content) Use this presentation to educate consumers about the dangers of phishing emails and wire transfer fraud. The presentation provides information on what to do if you’ve fallen victim to a scam and also highlights 10 tips to prevent wire fraud.
Get Information to Help Your Business and Your Customer Protect Closing Funds
Information Security Articles
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Congress Zooms in on Cybersecurity After Banner Year of Attacks
The past 12 months stand as a banner year in the severity of cyberattacks that wreaked havoc on organizations large and small. But in the wake of the chaos, a silver lining has emerged around a never-before-seen level of bipartisan support and genuine interest on Capitol Hill for strengthening the nation's cybersecurity.
Criminals Using SMS Messages to Beat Multifactor Authentication
Criminals have deployed a Zelle fraud scam that allows them to infiltrate a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service used by many financial institutions by circumventing multifactor authentication and accessing a victim’s bank account without knowing the username or password.
Choosing and Protecting Passwords
You probably use personal identification numbers, passwords or passphrases every day: from getting money from the ATM or using your debit card in a store, to logging in to your email or your company’s VPN. Tracking all the number, letter and special character combinations may be frustrating, but these protections are important because hackers represent a real threat to your information.
Arizona Federal Court Finds False Pretenses Exclusion Bars Coverage for Fraudulent Wire Transfer Under Professional Liability Policy
The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona weighed in on the issue whether a professional liability policy provided insurance for a fraudulent wire transfer. This decision is not the first to tackle this issue, and like the other opinions issued across the country, this case demonstrates that the answer to this somewhat thorny question depends heavily on the specific policy wording at issue.
DDoS Attacks Becoming More Prolific and More Powerful, Warn Cybersecurity Researchers
According to a report by cybersecurity researchers at Netscout, there were 5.4 million recorded DDoS attacks during the first half of 2021—a figure that represents an 11% rise compared with the same period last year.
The Scam That Keeps On Taking
One ruse that has been particularly persistent is the wire transfer dodge in which cyber-criminals impersonate title firms in trying to steal mortgage payoffs. So much so that the Secret Service recently issued an advisory warning on a “drastic increase” in the scam. ALTA offers a number of resources to help protect against wire fraud and raise awareness about the threat, including a wire preparation checklist, videos, infographic and a rapid response plan for wire fraud incidents.
When it Comes to Wire Fraud, Are We Asking Enough Questions?
Authentication and training are important, but why aren’t we thinking about attacking the threat from other angles as well? Read on as Paymints.io CEO Jason Doshi discusses solutions to wire transfer fraud.
Cyber Coverage Premiums Increase 25%, Survey Shows
More ransomware attacks, poor risk management protocols and lack of employee training resulted in a 25.5% increase in the average premium for cyber insurance coverage, according to a survey from the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.
There was Another Massive Data Breach. People will Probably Forget it in a Week.
A data breach that affected more than 40 million current, former and prospective T-Mobile customers is a massive cybersecurity incident that is bound to spark a public backlash. Or, then again, maybe it will be forgotten in a week.
‘None of it was Real’: Real Estate Scam Nearly Snares Woman
The current real estate market has many people making large down payments to get their new home. But a growing real estate scam targeting people in the region nearly snared Allison Boekenoogen. Scammers pose as the title company to try to make you send that down payment into the wrong account, losing both your future home but a fortune in cash.
Wire Transfer Scheme Targets Mortgage Payoffs, Secret Service Warns
The U.S. Secret Service issued an advisory warning of a drastic increase in wire transfer fraud related to mortgage payoffs.
Register for Today's Cyber Webinar to Hear from FBI, Secret Service
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET | Register Today
Cybercrime continues to grow, especially during the pandemic and the new age of remote work. Join us for this moderated discussion as government officials discuss the latest cyber threats, what agencies are doing to prevent cybercrimes and what the industry can do to help report criminal activity. Register for this RamQuest-sponsored ALTA Insights webinar to hear from the FBI and Secret Service and learn how you can help fend off cyberattacks and protect your customers and business. This presentation will not be recorded for later viewing.
Survey: Title Professionals Targeted for Wire Fraud in a Third of all Transactions
Title insurance professionals reported cyber criminals attempted to trick employees to wire funds to a fraudulent account in a third of all real estate and mortgage transactions, according to ALTA’s 2021 Wire Fraud and Cyber Crime Survey. However, training and education seem to be working as funds were only wired to a fraudulent account in a little over 8% of these attempts.
$1.8 Billion Lost Due to Business Email Compromise in 2020
According to the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 791,790, complaints with reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion last year. Business email compromise (BEC) schemes continued to be the costliest, with 19,369 complaints resulting in losses of $1.8 billion. In regard to real estate, there were 13,638 fraud victims with $213,196,082 in reported losses.
Homebuyer’s Life Savings Stolen in Wire Fraud but Recovered for Timely Closing
As a second-time home buyer outside of Denver prepared for the purchase of his new home, he received an email appearing to come from the title company asking him to wire his closing funds early in the transaction. The buyer wired nearly $80,000. Two days later, he was notified that the money did not arrive at the title company. Fortunately, the title company quickly engaged and advised him how to notify the financial institutions involved of the crime.
FTC Warns Small Businesses of COVID Scam
According to the Federal Trade Commission, the email claims to come from the “Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Assistance,” indicating the recipient is eligible for a loan of up to $250,000 and asks for personal information like birth date and Social Security number.