Wiring money to a title company is safe when you verify the wiring instructions by phone, using a number you found yourself, before you send anything. The Fedwire system that moves the funds is secure and processes trillions of dollars a day. The risk sits one step earlier: criminals intercept or spoof the email carrying your wiring instructions and redirect the money to an account they control. In 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 9,359 real estate fraud complaints totaling more than $173 million in losses, with business email compromise schemes accounting for another $2.77 billion across all industries.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2024 IC3 Annual Report The infrastructure is not the weak link. Human verification is.
Where the Real Risk Lives
The dominant attack on real estate closings is business email compromise. Criminals get into a real estate agent’s, lender’s, or title company’s email account, sometimes weeks before closing. They read the thread. They learn your name, the property address, the closing date, and the escrow officer’s writing style. Then, close to closing, they send an email that appears to come from the title company with “updated” wiring instructions pointing to an account they control.2Federal Bureau of Investigation. Business Email Compromise
These emails are convincing. Attackers spoof the sender address with a single-letter change or an added period. They use the correct escrow officer’s name, the right property, and the exact purchase price. Some deploy malware that lets them read legitimate billing threads so the fake instructions arrive right when you expect them. A buyer who trusts the email and wires the funds has almost no recourse once the money lands in the criminal’s account.
How to Verify Before You Send
Verification is the entire defense. Do it in this order.
Get the instructions through a secure channel if you can. Many title companies now deliver wiring details through a password-protected portal or hand them to you on paper at their office. If yours offers an encrypted platform, use it. If email is the only option, treat those instructions as unverified until you confirm them by voice.
Call your title company at a number you found independently. Use the number on their official website, on a business card from an earlier meeting, or in your original engagement letter. Never call a number provided in the suspicious email itself.3Federal Bureau of Investigation. Building a Digital Defense Against Real Estate Fraud Read the account number, the routing number, and the beneficiary name back to your escrow officer and have them confirm each one. This single step defeats the vast majority of wire fraud schemes because attackers can intercept email but rarely control the title company’s phone lines.
Ask what security procedures the company uses. A title company that takes wire fraud seriously will describe its callback verification, its encrypted delivery, and its written staff protocols without hesitation. If the answer is “we’ll email you the instructions,” push back. Industry standards from the American Land Title Association call for exactly these controls.
Red Flags in a Wiring Instructions Email
- Last-minute changes. Any email claiming the instructions have been “updated” or “corrected” close to closing is the single biggest warning sign. Legitimate title companies rarely change their bank accounts.
- Urgency and pressure. Language demanding you wire “immediately” or warning the closing will fall through is designed to override careful verification.
- Refusal to speak by phone. A sender who insists on handling everything by email is showing you what they are.
- Subtle address differences. Compare the sender’s email character by character against earlier correspondence. Fraudsters swap letters, add characters, or use a lookalike domain.
- Awkward grammar or formatting. Odd phrasing, unusual spacing, or inconsistent capitalization can signal that the email originated overseas or was assembled in a hurry.
What Your Bank Will Need
Your bank will ask for the full beneficiary name (the title or escrow company), the receiving bank’s name, a nine-digit ABA routing number, and the escrow account number. Use your Closing Disclosure to identify the exact dollar amount. That document breaks down every fee, tax, and credit in the transaction, and your wire needs to match the final figure precisely.
Contact your bank before the day you plan to wire. Some institutions cap daily outgoing transfers, and if your closing costs exceed that limit, you’ll need to request an increase in advance. Outgoing domestic wire fees at major banks generally run $20 to $30, though some charge up to $40 depending on whether you initiate online or at a branch.4Bankrate. How Much Are Wire Transfer Fees? Bring a government-issued photo ID if you’re going in person.5Chase. How to Wire Money
Timing the Wire
The Fedwire Funds Service operates from 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the preceding calendar day through 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the current business day, Monday through Friday, excluding Federal Reserve holidays.6Federal Reserve Financial Services. Wholesale Services Operating Hours Your bank has an earlier internal cutoff, often around 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern. A wire submitted after your bank’s cutoff won’t process until the next business day.
If your closing is Friday morning, send the wire Thursday. If closing is Monday, send it Friday and expect it to land Monday. Cutting it too close is how closings get delayed. Before you click send or sign the authorization form, double-check every field one more time.
After the wire goes out, request a receipt with the Federal Reference Number or the IMAD/OMAD tracking code. This identifier is generated by the Federal Reserve and confirms the funds entered the system.7Federal Reserve Financial Services. Wires – Fedwire Funds Service Send that tracking number to your title company contact immediately so they can watch for the incoming funds.
Why You Cannot Undo a Wire
Once the bank submits your wire to Fedwire, the payment is final and irrevocable when it reaches the receiving bank.8eCFR. 12 CFR Part 210 Subpart B – Funds Transfers Through the Fedwire Funds Service Unlike a credit card charge or an ACH payment, there is no dispute process that can claw the money back.
Domestic wire transfers are also excluded from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the federal law that requires banks to investigate disputed transactions and reimburse unauthorized transfers on debit cards, ATMs, and most electronic payments.9eCFR. 12 CFR Part 1005 – Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E) Wires fall under UCC Article 4A instead, which generally relieves a bank of the obligation to refund an unauthorized transfer if it followed a commercially reasonable security procedure the customer agreed to. In plain terms: if you authorized the wire and the bank processed it correctly, the loss is yours, even if a criminal tricked you into wiring to the wrong account. Prevention is the protection.
If You Suspect the Wire Went to a Fraudulent Account
Speed decides everything. Take these steps in this order.
- Call your bank immediately and request a wire recall. A wire can potentially be recalled if it has not yet been credited to the beneficiary’s account. Once the receiving bank releases the funds, recovery becomes far harder.
- File a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Provide the date, amount, originating bank, recipient bank, routing number, and account numbers. The FBI uses these complaints to activate recovery efforts.10Federal Bureau of Investigation. Business Email Compromise and Real Estate Wire Fraud 2022
- Alert your title company and real estate agent. They need to know the transaction is compromised.
- Preserve every email, text, and voicemail related to the closing. Do not delete anything, even messages that seem irrelevant.
The FinCEN Rapid Response Program works with the FBI to freeze fraudulent wires and recover funds. Reporting within 72 hours dramatically improves the odds. In fiscal year 2021, the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team used the Financial Fraud Kill Chain 1,726 times with a 74 percent success rate, freezing over $328 million for return to victims.11Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Fact Sheet on the Rapid Response Program (RRP) That figure drops sharply after the first few days as criminals move money through multiple accounts and overseas. Reporting quickly is the difference between recovery and a total loss.