Featured Resources
Video
Protect Your Money When Buying a Home from Scams
ALTA wants homeowners and sellers to be aware that criminals are using wire fraud schemes to steal money meant for home purchases or the proceeds from the sale of the property.
ALTA Insights Webinar
The State of Wire Fraud in the Title Industry
Significant progress has been made in our industry over the past few years on wire fraud awareness and education. The latest FBI IC3 and CertifID State of Wire Fraud reports contain some surprising findings.
Education Flyer
Seller Impersonation Fraud in Real Estate
Fraudsters are impersonating property owners to illegally sell commercial or residential property. Fraudsters are using the real property owner's Social Security and driver's license numbers in the transaction.
Policy + Tools
ALTA Outgoing Wire Preparation Checklist
ALTA's Information Security Committee developed this tool for members seeking best practices to verify outgoing wire information. The checklist is broken into three sections: provide the source of the wiring instructions, verify instructions received by email or from someone other than the payee, and verify delivery of wired funds.
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.
For Consumers
Protect Your Money When Buying a Home from Closing Scams
Buying and selling a home is an exciting time, but there can be pitfalls for unsuspecting consumers . The American Land Title Association wants homeowners and sellers to be aware that criminals are using wire fraud schemes to steal money meant for home purchases or the proceeds from the sale of the property.
Protect Your Money When Buying a Home from Closing Scams
Mortgage Closing Scams is one of the single costliest forms of fraud a homebuyer can fall victim to. This rack card is meant to be handed out any homeowner who is ready to purchase a home or added to the CPL packet. Available in Several languages
Seller Impersonation Fraud in Real Estate
Fraudsters are impersonating property owners to illegally sell commercial or residential property. Sophisticated fraudsters are using the real property owner's Social Security and driver's license numbers in the transaction, as well as legitimate notary credentials, which may be applied without the notary's knowledge.
In the News
Buyer Suffers Wire Transfer Fraud Loss, Not Escrow Company
A buyer bore the loss when she fell for the trap of phishing wire transfer instructions and wired the purchase money to a fraudster and not the escrow company, the Nevada court of appeals held in the case wheeler v. Clear title co., Inc.
The Latest Scam Vacant Land Fraud
Jaime Kosofsky had just spent a full day attending a cybersecurity conference hosted by Premier One. After eight hours of hearing about all the stuff that could go wrong, a founding partner of the North Carolina-based law firm Brady & ...
Training
The State of Wire Fraud in the Title Industry
Buying and selling a home is an exciting time, but there can be pitfalls for unsuspecting consumers. The American Land Title Association wants homeowners and sellers to be aware that criminals are using wire fraud schemes to steal money meant for home purchases or the proceeds from the sale of the property.
What is Phishing/Wire Fraud
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.
News
Recent 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022
FBI Releases 2022 Congressional Report on BEC, Real Estate Wire Fraud
The FBI released a report that summaries its efforts to combat business email compromise (BEC) scams and real estate wire fraud by working with partners to identify perpetrators and dismantle their organizations. The report was spurred by ALTA’s efforts the past two years to get language included in various House and Senate appropriations reports directing respective agencies to report on efforts to combat and raise awareness of BEC and wire fraud, and collaborate with industry partners to address threats.
Wire Fraud: New Twist to Scamming Buyers
Scammers steal an email login, monitor conversations, pretend to be a title company or other entity involved in the transaction, and provide false deposit info. Now they’re doing it via virtual meetings.
Hackers Target Eager Homebuyers With a Dumb Scam That Keeps Working
Criminals have found a novel way to intercept wire transfers for down payments. Can a small team of Secret Service agents prevent your worst real estate nightmare? Earlier this year, ALTA’s advocacy team recently secured a win on the crucial legislative priority of wire fraud in real estate. Report language ALTA requested was included in the 2022 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which was recently passed by Congress and signed into law. This language directs the FBI to release a public report on the threat of BEC scams and to increase collaboration with industry and other private sector partners. Click here for resources to help inform and educate your customers about wire fraud.
Don’t Get Duped! 5 Common Real Estate Scams and How to Avoid Them
What’s one thing buyers, sellers, renters, and landlords all have in common? They can all fall victim to a real estate scam. In fact, home-related hoaxes are on the rise. Losses from real estate cybercrimes have gone up nearly as fast as home prices—totaling more than $350.3 million last year, an increase of 64%, according to the FBI’s most recent Internet Crime Report.
CertifID Launches New Wire Fraud Protection Solution
The new PayoffProtect solution uses machine learning to automate and standardize the mortgage payoff demand letter verification process. In more than 95% of cases, the company’s validation engine software authenticates loan payoff wiring instructions.
Good News for Good Deeds
Good news for the ALTA Good Deeds Foundation! CertifID, a wire fraud recovery and prevention company and ALTA Elite Provider, will be donating $25 to the ALTA Good Deeds Foundation for every person who attends a special webinar with ALTA CEO Diane Tomb. Register for this free session today.
Homebuyers Sue REX After Losing $140K in Wire Fraud Scam
The complaint alleges negligence and breach of fiduciary duty after an unknown third party impersonated the brokerage's title company and sent the buyers fraudulent wiring instructions.
Survey: Cyber Attacks Against Title Companies Continues to Increase
Cyber attacks targeting title and settlement companies remained the same or increased over the past year, according to a recent ALTA survey.
ALTA Secures BEC Language in House Appropriations Bills
This language directs the respective agencies to report on efforts to combat and raise awareness of business email compromise (BEC) schemes and collaborate with industry partners to address threats.
Scammers Finding New Ways to Take Advantage of Homebuyers
A Middle Tennessee man has a warning for others after he lost a quarter of a million dollars. Randall Shaw still can’t stomach the fact he almost lost that much money. “Nobody should every wire money based on an email they received,” said Diane Tomb, CEO of ALTA.
New Warning About Rise in Homebuying Scams
Good Morning America reported Tuesday on the increase of real estate wire fraud and how homebuyers can protect themselves. "Last year was a breakaway year, unfortunately, for consumers being victimized for real estate wire fraud as they're trying to get their downpayment and closing obligations satisfied, a lot of times by wire transfer," said Tom Cronkright, co-founder and CEO of CertifID.
Westcor, ClosingLock Partner to Help Combat Wire Fraud
Westcor Land Title Insurance Co. and ClosingLock are partnering to help combat wire fraud for the underwriter’s agents. The partnership will allow Westcor to offer ClosingLock to their agents, protecting them from wire fraud in addition to improving the closing experience.
How to Guard Against Losing Your Assets to Wire Fraud: A Growing Cybersecurity Threat
“We don’t want to see those trying to purchase homes derailed by wire transfer fraud. To help prevent this, we launched a campaign to inform homebuyers and policymakers about the dangers, along with signs of what may take place when closing on a new home or refinancing a mortgage,” said Jeremy Yohe, vice president of communications for the American Land Title Association.
Last Chance: Take ALTA's Wire Fraud & Cyber Crime Survey
The United States experienced an unprecedented increase in cyberattacks and malicious cyber activity as consumers lost $6.9 billion to internet crime in 2021, according to the FBI. Because of this, ALTA would like to know your company’s experience with wire transfer fraud or cybersecurity? Please take ALTA's Wire Fraud & Cyber Crime Survey to share your experience. The goal of the survey is to learn more about wire fraud incidents in the industry. Your participation and results of the survey will help ALTA continue to raise awareness and encourage federal agencies to focus more on the threat of wire transfer fraud. Survey results will help title and settlement agents benchmark wire fraud experiences and practices.
Arkansas Couple Scammed by Wire Transfer Fraud for $109,646
A husband and wife were planning a move to their new home in Wisconsin when they got scammed in a wire fraud transfer. The couple was expecting an email from Dairy State Bank in Wisconsin about closing costs for the new home.