Real Estate Wire Fraud and Our Funds Wiring Policy

October 19, 2020

By: John L. Mashack

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The following story illustrates a particularly dangerous type of internet fraud prevalent in the real estate industry.

A Northern California family’s experience buying their dream home turned into a nightmare when they became victims of a real estate wire fraud scheme. The fraudsters intercepted emails between the buyers, their real estate agent, and the title company, and sent fraudulent wiring instructions to the buyers. On closing day, the buyers wired over $920,000.00, thinking the wire had been sent to the title company. Instead, their life savings went halfway across the world to the fraudsters’ bank account. Fortunately in this case the family eventually recovered their funds and were able to close on their dream home, but this should serve as a warning for anyone wiring funds for their home purchase. Fraudulently diverted funds cannot always be recovered.

Internet fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in perpetrating their wire fraud schemes, so you need to always be careful when confirming the wire instructions you received are legitimate. Real estate wire fraud is on the rise in recent years, with more than $221 million in losses last year, according to the FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report.

This is why we will send our wiring instructions either via encrypted email or fax only, and you must call our office prior to wiring funds to verbally verify any wiring instructions that you receive from us. As in the story outlined above, in some cases even emails that look like they are coming from a title company could be fraudulent.

Please call us at (703) 737-3800 if you have any questions about wiring cash-to-close funds or if Loudoun Commercial Title can be of any other assistance.

If you feel you have been a victim of internet fraud, call 911 immediately or visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

How one family’s nightmare illustrates the growing threat of real estate wire fraud

Fraudulent Cashier’s Checks and Our Cash to Close Policy

August 6, 2020

By: John L. Mashack

Recently a man in Florida allegedly drove off the dealership lot with a Porsche he purchased using a cashier’s check for $139,203.05 that he printed on his home computer. He was caught the next day trying to purchase nearly $62,000.00 in watches using another fraudulent cashier’s check. This time the jeweler held on to the watches until the check could be verified as legitimate. This is a great example of the reason title companies cannot accept cashier’s or bank checks the day before or the day of closing.

A cashier’s check is a check that is written by a bank, drawn on the bank’s funds, and signed by a cashier at the bank. This contrasts with a certified bank check, which is written by the individual account holder and is drawn from their bank funds, but the bank guarantees that the individual’s bank account has the funds to cash the check and sets these funds aside until the check clears.

In the past these types of checks were treated as guaranteed funds that could be wired against once they posted to the recipient’s bank account the next business day. However, due to an increase in fraudulent cashier’s checks and certified bank checks, many banks have begun to hold these checks until they clear, which may take up to 5 business days. Earlier this year, our own bank advised us that it may take closer to 10 days for these checks to fully clear.

What this means is that as a practical matter, we can no longer accept cashier’s checks or certified bank checks for real estate closings, where we may not know the final amount that is due from the buyer/borrower and lender until the day before, or even the day of closing. Also, we are expected to remit payoffs, seller proceeds and other disbursements within a day after closing, which we cannot do on funds that have not cleared our account.

We hope this sheds light on our policy to accept only wires as cash to close for real estate closings. We will send an encrypted email with our wiring instructions at least 48 hours before your closing, which you will use to wire funds to our real estate escrow account. Due to the cyber security threat of fraudulent wire requests, we ask that you call our office prior to wiring funds to verbally verify any wiring instructions that you receive from us.

Please call us at (703) 737-3800 if you have any questions about cashier’s checks and wires, or if Loudoun Commercial Title can be of any other assistance.

Florida man buys Porsche with check printed from home computer

Florida man buys $140,000 Porsche with check printed from home computer

 

VIRGINIA RECORDATION COSTS TO INCREASE JULY 1, 2020

June 30th, 2020

By: Robert M. Gordon, Executive Vice President

The Commonwealth of Virginia has increased its recordation costs effective July 1, 2020. For all purchase and sale transactions after July 1, 2020, a “Regional Congestion Relief Fee” is added on each Deed transferring or conveying real property, in the amount of $0.05 for each $100 or fraction thereof of consideration or assessed value.   This affects the closer-in Northern Virginia counties-Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, City of Alexandria.

The existing WMATA Regional Transportation Improvement Fee of $0.15 per $100 or fraction thereof remains in place.

What this means is that the portion of transfer and recordation costs customarily paid by the Seller (Grantor) is increased from $0.15 per $100 to $0.20 per $100.

Some historical background:

In 2013 Virginia added to the long-standing Grantors tax of $0.05 per $100 or fraction thereof (i.e., $0.10 per $100 or 1/10 of 1%), a Regional Congestion Relief Fee of $0.15 per $100) to be utilized for highway transportation improvements in selected Northern Virginia counties.   Large sums were raised and deployed for road improvements for a number of years until 2018, when the “Fee” was renamed the WMATA Regional Transportation Improvement Fee, and all funds were taken from roads and given to Metro (the “Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority” or “WMATA”). Now, in 2020 the $0.05 per hundred represents a return to some level of funding for road improvements in Northern Virginia.

Effective May 1, 2021 the WMATA Regional Transportation Improvement Fee will be reduced from $0.15 per $100 to $0.10 per $100 and the Regional Congestion Relief Fee will be increased from $0.05 per $100 to $0.10 per $100. In effect, the total combined amount of these two “Fees” will remain at $0.20 per $100 or fraction thereof.

If you have any questions about this, or if Loudoun Commercial Title LLC can be of assistance in any way, please contact Kate Gordon at kate@loudouncommercialtitle.com, or Bob Gordon at bob@loudouncommercialtitle.com, or call us at 703 737 3800.

If you’re in the market for a commercial or residential property, now is the time to call Loudoun Commercial Title, LLC. Find out how the settlement firm’s dynamic and detail-oriented approach ensures customer satisfaction with its work. And discover how the expert counsel of president and owner Robert M. Gordon can assist you with your transactional needs.

Loudoun Commercial Title, LLC specializes in the three services critical to the purchase or financing of a commercial or residential property: 1) due diligence, 2) settlement, and 3) title insurance.

Loudoun Commercial Title’s website is designed to be as helpful as the firm itself. As Bob Gordon says, “We are always available to answer your questions about the settlement process.”