Protect Your Money When Buying a Home

Every day, hackers try to steal your money by emailing fake wire instructions. Criminals will use a similar email address and steal a logo and other info to make it look like the email came from your real estate agent or Stone Arch Title. Stone Arch Title has partnered with CertifID to optimize its wire transfer operations and reduce its threat from cyber-criminals. You can protect yourself and your money by following these steps:

Be Vigilant

  • Call, don’t email: Confirm your wiring instructions by phone using a known number before transferring funds. Don’t use phone numbers or links from an email.
  • Be suspicious: It’s uncommon for title companies to change wiring instructions and payment info by email.

Protect Your Money

  • Confirm everything: Ask your bank to confirm the name on the account before sending a wire.
  • Verify immediately: Within four to eight hours, call the title company or real estate agent to confirm they received your money.

What to do if You’ve Been Targeted

  • Immediately call your bank and ask them to issue a recall notice for your wire
  • Report the crime to www.IC3.gov
  • Call your regional FBI office and police
  • Detecting that you sent money to the wrong account within 24 hours is the best chance of recovering your money.
This is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.