How Wire Fraud Became the #1 Risk in Real Estate (and What To Do About It)

There's a specific moment that exposes every real estate transaction to catastrophic risk. It lasts maybe 30 seconds. It happens on a laptop or a phone, usually with a cup of coffee nearby, usually on the morning of closing or the day before. A buyer enters the routing and account numbers they received by email, types in the wire amount — often their entire life savings plus a loan — clicks submit, and in that instant, if the wiring instructions were fake, the money is gone. Usually forever. This is wire fraud. In the span of about eight years, it has become the single largest financial risk in residential real estate.