Wire Fraud is Real!

The Illinois Good Funds Act requires that all parties in a real estate transaction wire their funds to the title company when the amount owed for closing is over $50,000. Before this, parties used to be able to bring a cashier’s check to the closing for the amount needed to close, either made payable to themselves, or the title company. But technology and the ability to develop fraudulent cashier’s checks has caused this to change. Now, wire fraud of course, is becoming more and more prevalent.

If you have to wire funds to a closing, please do the following:

1) Obtain the wire instructions from the title company directly. As a practice, my office does not provide wire instructions to clients for closing. I want them to obtain them directly from the source.

2) If you ever receive wire instructions from anyone else, including your attorney, or another set even that appears from the title company, please call the source and verbally verify that these are new instructions.

3) Before you wire your funds, verbally verify with the title company the bank information to which you are wiring. And then call the title company to confirm they have received them.

Wiring funds to the wrong place can be catastrophic. Fraudsters are great at making their emails look like they come from a legitimate place. They are very good at tricking people into sending them their money. And unfortunately, when you wire your money to the wrong place, it’s like wiring it to a Nigerian prince in a scam email. You will likely not be able to recover it.

Always consult your real estate attorney on any issues, or if anything seems suspicious, please notify them right away.