One of the fastest growing cybercrimes in the U.S. is wire fraud in real estate. The scam works like this: A fraudster gains access to an email account involved in a real estate transaction.

It can be anyone involved in the real estate transaction—from your settlement agent, lender, real estate agent, or even the buyer. The fraudster will monitor emails throughout the transactions progress and insert themselves at just the right time … Closing Time.

The imposter will then send the buyer a very sophisticated and authentic-looking email asking for funds to be wired to an alternate bank account to finalize the purchase of their beautiful new home. By the time you get to the closing table you have no idea that you just wired your entire life savings to a fraudulent offshore account straight into the hackers’ hands.

While these fraudsters can be clever, we at The Closing Shop, LLC follow strict protocols when it comes to electronically transferring your hard-earned dollars. With e...