Before sending closing funds, call the title or escrow company using a phone number you obtained independently—not a number or link in the message—and confirm the instructions. A polished PDF, familiar logo, or familiar-looking email address does not authenticate a bank account. Fake wire instructions are a payment-diversion risk; forged deeds or mortgages can instead target property ownership or financing.
How do you verify wire instructions for closing?
Use a known contact route, not the contact details delivered with the instructions you are checking. ALTA warns that scammers may copy logos and use similar email addresses to impersonate an attorney, agent, or title company. Its consumer handout on closing scams recommends independent verification.
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- Find the company’s phone number independently. Use previously established closing paperwork or another independently located official source. Do not rely on a number, link, or reply address in the message containing the wiring instructions.
- Call and read back the instructions. Confirm the recipient, bank, account details, and any other information needed to direct the payment. If anything differs from what you expected, stop and resolve it with the company before authorizing the wire.
- Ask your bank to confirm the receiving account name before authorizing the transfer. A matching name is an additional check, not a substitute for confirming the instructions with the title or escrow company.
- After sending, call the title company independently to confirm that it received the funds.
Treat a mid-transaction change to the company’s bank account or wiring instructions as a stop-and-verify signal. ALTA specifically advises consumers to be suspicious of such a change; verify it through the independently obtained number before acting.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsCan a PDF or email show whether escrow instructions are fake?
Appearance alone cannot establish that payment instructions are genuine. Logos, familiar names, professional wording, and a similar-looking sender address can all be imitated. A document that looks convincing is not proof that the account belongs to the intended title or escrow company; an unusual-looking document by itself is not proof of forgery either.
The authoritative and industry sources cited here do not provide a technical procedure for validating PDF metadata, signatures, or edits. Do not use a visual inspection—or a PDF’s appearance—as a substitute for confirming the payment instructions by phone and checking the recipient account name with your bank. ALTA’s handout is informational and says it is not legal advice.
| What you check | What it can establish |
|---|---|
| Logo, wording, or the PDF’s appearance | These details do not independently authenticate the payment instructions. |
| Instructions confirmed using an independently obtained phone number, plus the bank’s recipient-name check | These are the supported verification steps before authorizing a wire. |
What should you do if you wired money to a scammer?
Act immediately. ALTA says detection within 24 hours gives the best chance of recovering funds; this is urgency guidance, not a promise that a wire can be reversed.
- Call your bank at once. Explain that the wire may have gone to a fraudulent account and request a wire recall notice.
- Report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
- Contact your regional FBI office and local police.
Use ALTA’s closing-scam handout for its consumer guidance on these response steps.
How is wire fraud different from deed or mortgage forgery?
Fake or compromised communications can divert a closing payment to an account controlled by a fraudster. Forged deeds or mortgages are a different kind of real-estate fraud: they can be used to manipulate apparent ownership or financing. ALTA discusses these as distinct forms of real-estate-related fraud.
The FBI Newark office describes seller impersonation and forged identity or document risks, including schemes involving vacant properties. That context concerns property-document fraud; it does not establish that every fake escrow or title PDF is part of a seller-impersonation scheme. Its account of those risks is available in “Fraudsters Are Stealing Land Out from Under Owners.”
What do the reported figures say about closing scams?
These figures describe different surveys, respondents, and types of activity; they should not be treated as a single estimate of the chance that any one closing will be targeted.
- Attempts to change instructions: More than 40% of title companies reported receiving at least one email per month in 2023 attempting to change wiring or payoff instructions. This was reported by ALTA in 2025 from a CertifID-sponsored study with 360 participants. ALTA’s study summary also reported that 7% of companies had wired funds to a fraudulent account, while 13% of respondents said their customers had wired funds to one. Those are separate company and customer measures.
- Consumer awareness: In a survey of 650 U.S. consumers who had bought or sold property in the prior three years, conducted in November 2023, 51% were not adequately aware of wire fraud at the start of closing and 71% believed it was not their own responsibility to be educated about it. ALTA published those results in 2024. Read the survey summary.
- Seller-impersonation attempts: In a separate 2024 ALTA summary of a survey of 783 title companies, 28% reported at least one seller-impersonation fraud attempt in 2023. This is seller-impersonation data, not a measure of wire-fraud incidence. Read the summary.
What controls can title and escrow professionals use?
ALTA identifies education, wire or payee verification software, and simulated phishing exercises as control layers. Its published survey does not rank them by effectiveness or establish that any one eliminates risk.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →| Control layer | How it fits into a layered approach |
|---|---|
| Consumer and agent education | Sets expectations for independent verification and makes instruction changes easier to recognize as a reason to pause. |
| Wire or payee verification software | Adds a verification step for payment or recipient details. |
| Simulated phishing exercises | Gives staff practice recognizing suspicious communications. |
The categories and survey findings appear in ALTA’s February 27, 2025 summary of its cybercrime study. In that summary, Diane Tomb, then ALTA chief executive officer, said: “Knowledge is the first line of defense in ensuring a safe and secure homebuying experience.”
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