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.

The ALTA Board has identified information security and wire transfer fraud as a Strategic Priority and staff are working to educate members on security threats to their businesses in both cyber and physical environments, collaborate with coalition partners to raise consumer awareness about information security and wire transfer fraud, and promote best practices for protecting personal funds and information and seek policy change that will protect consumers.

Do You . . .

• work in the land title insurance industry?
• use a computer, tablet or smartphone?
• talk and email with vendors, clients, customers and consumers?

ALTA Helps You

• understand the legal and regulatory requirements for your operation. Jump to Federal and State requirements.
• be aware of the latest threats and schemes. Jump to the latest news about information security and wire transfer fraud.
• protect your information technology systems. Jump to resources.
• prepare your people to be aware and vigilant. Jump to employee awareness, recorded webinars, or the ALTA Outgoing Wire Preparation Checklist.
• respond rapidly in case of an incident. Jump to the Rapid Response Plan for Wire Fraud Incidents.

Tools You Can Use

Get The Facts

• FBI Public Service Announcement (I-050417-PSA). 10-minute read. The PSA, dated May 2017, describes Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Email Account Compromise (EAC) schemes and how they lead to wire fraud.

• 2019 Internet Crime Report. Published by the FBI's Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3). Take 30 minutes to read this report and discover the trends in cyber crime, which impact more than 200,000 victims every year and result in losses topping $1 billion. The report shows there were 11,677 victims of real estate wire fraud in 2019 with $221 million in losses.

Establish and Maintain Operational Readiness

• NEW ITEM: 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: The standard ALTA Rapid Response Plan for Wire Fraud Incidents has been developed by the ALTA Information Security Committee. Download and customize:
• ALTA Rapid Response Plan for Wire Fraud Incidents
• Rapid Response Worksheet - available in Excel Format or PDF
• ALTA Best Practices. The third pillar of ALTA’s “Title Insurance and Settlement Company Best Practices” provides procedures that should be taken to protect non-public personal information (NPI).
• Federal Requirements. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB): This regulation requires financial institutions—companies that offer consumers financial products or services like loans, financial or investment advice, or insurance—to explain their information-sharing practices to their customers and to safeguard sensitive data. These companies include title and settlement companies, as well as law firms.
• State Requirements. Forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have enacted legislation requiring private, governmental or educational entities to notify individuals of security breaches of information involving personally identifiable information.

Promote Employee Awareness and Preparation

Title and settlement professionals are on the front line in the battle against wire transfer fraud. Use these tools to help prepare your employees:

• Monitor and Improve Employee Skills and Awareness.
  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)
• ALTA Meetings Focus on Information Security:
• ALTA Innovation Boot Camps for 2019 in Raleigh (April) and Chicago (August). Sessions cover cyber fraud, cyber insurance, data privacy laws and regulations, effective training for staff, Realtors, and consumers. Also - meet vendors with solutions!

Be a Leader for Clients & Consumers

ALTA has developed tools to help you educate consumers about the dangers of wire fraud.

• 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 Customers

Information Security Articles

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The the FBI has warned that fraudsters continue to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to steal money through business email compromise schemes. Want to protect your computer network from being hacked? Experts say companies should perform what’s called a “Penetration Test” to find any vulnerabilities in your network. Register for an upcoming webinar "Why You Need to Get Hacked," sponsored by FNF Family of Companies, to learn how a penetration test works and how to act on the results.

In recognition of the growing convergence of cyber and traditional financial crimes, the U.S. Secret Service has merged two electronic and financial crimes unites into a single unified network that will focus on investigating cyber-enabled financial crimes, such as business email compromise schemes and ransomware attacks.

With more people using mobile banking applications during theCOVID-19 pandemic to transfer funds and cash checks, theFBI issued a warning thatcyber actors will exploit these platforms. These types of techniques an often lead to wire transfer fraud, so it’s important for title and settlement companies to educate customers about the dangers when buying a home or refinancing. Click here to access tools and resources developed by ALTA.

Louisiana became the latest state to pass legislation based off the model data security bill developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). In February, ALTA released its data privacy principles. The principles recommend the development of a single, national standard to help protect consumer private information uniformly and consistently while maintaining an efficient homebuying and selling experience.

When creating a fraud strategy, the top concern for many organizations accepting online payments is preventing payment fraud. This makes sense, but failing to consider other types of illicit activity can be costly. In fact, most marketplace fraud spending is not related to payment fraud, but rather other forms of illicit activity that includes collusion, trade base laundering, and transaction laundering. These result in economic losses, and worse in negative reputation impact.