What The Fark 6: FARK OFF!

[St. Clown]

A grad school friend and her husband, both PhDs, just shared on Facebook that they lost their life savings to a scam. They finally saved up enough to buy a house in the DC area. The scammer inserted itself in between them and the title company, and basically provided fake account info for them to send the down payment to. They are working with the FBI, but the money is likely just gone. Absolutely horrible. They said all the documentation from the scammer looked perfect - coming from the right email address, right fonts and format, perfect English, etc.

I would certainly have never thought to call the title company directly on a verified number to confirm the transfer details - but you bet your *** I will the next time.

I’m late o the reply list here, but here are some tips that could help:
—Research the ABA or SWIFT (if international) routing instructions provided for the wire.
—Using a search engine to first get the correct URL, find contact info to reach out to the bank to validate as much of that info as possible.
—The ABA’s and SWIFT’s sites will provide the registered financial institution. (Hint: the larger the bank, the better they are at performing the required customer due diligence, the less likely you’re given a scammer’s account. Though not impossible.) My employer works really hard at making sure the only people stealing from their customers is the bank itself. Allowing known bad actors work from within the bank is actually far worse in penalties than being the bank actor itself.

[LynahFan]

Lots of people on the edge. Arm the sandwich makers

https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/stat...4VGgNaRNr7wIlw

Please, they're "Sandwich Artists." :-)

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Lots of people on the edge. Arm the sandwich makers

https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/stat...4VGgNaRNr7wIlw

[WisconsinWildcard]

(None of this is meant to imply LF's friends did anything wrong, a lot of this is there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-I, because I knew squat about buying a home and would have been the perfect patsy.)

And to clarify, I was not trying to imply that they did anything wrong. Just that I remember the fear of god being put in me by the professionals helping me through the process.

[Kepler]

(None of this is meant to imply LF's friends did anything wrong, a lot of this is there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-I, because I knew squat about buying a home and would have been the perfect patsy.)

Same here. I just followed my bank's instructions. The bank was SUPER careful and serious, so I was too.

[LynahFan]

Wait, please tell me it wasn't the full value of the home. In dc.

Just the downpayment, but these people have only been gainfully employed (grad stipends don't count) for about 10 years, so scraping together a DC downpayment in that time is actually pretty good.

[LynahFan]

If you don't mind me asking, how did the scammer insert themselves? Did the scammer call first?

There were both calls and emails, but I don't know which was first.

[French Rage]

For the initial purchase, I was in another state and wired money to the title company (or bank, cannot remember the exact details at this time) which I think is similar to the situation described where an scammer inserted themselves and got the money instead. Either way, I made several phone calls the day of transfer to ensure details of the transaction.

Same here. It was April 2021, so I think everything was still being done non-in-person as much as possible. I think I called the person on the other end to check a lot of details, partly because I was nervous and partly because we were getting close to running out of time in the closing period and I wanted to make sure everyone was done without any additional mistakes that would delay things. I also had to go in-person t Chase to do the wire based on the size (#humblebrag) so maybe they would have been able to detect anything.

(None of this is meant to imply LF's friends did anything wrong, a lot of this is there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-I, because I knew squat about buying a home and would have been the perfect patsy.)

[French Rage]

A grad school friend and her husband, both PhDs, just shared on Facebook that they lost their life savings to a scam. They finally saved up enough to buy a house in the DC area. The scammer inserted itself in between them and the title company, and basically provided fake account info for them to send the down payment to. They are working with the FBI, but the money is likely just gone. Absolutely horrible. They said all the documentation from the scammer looked perfect - coming from the right email address, right fonts and format, perfect English, etc.

I would certainly have never thought to call the title company directly on a verified number to confirm the transfer details - but you bet your *** I will the next time.

If you don't mind me asking, how did the scammer insert themselves? Did the scammer call first?

[dxmnkd316]

Wait, please tell me it wasn't the full value of the home. In dc.

[LynahFan]

That's why I worked directly with the bank.

Thats fucking tragic though lynah. I don't even know how they recover from that.

Absolutely devastating, especially since they were buying the house due to a new, very, very, very long awaited baby. They are absolutely shattered.

[dxmnkd316]

That's why I worked directly with the bank.

Thats fucking tragic though lynah. I don't even know how they recover from that.

[WisconsinWildcard]

Every time I've closed on a house or refinanced, I just had to bring a single check to an in-person meeting that covers all closing related-costs. I'm confused why you need to deal with the title company directly?

For the initial purchase, I was in another state and wired money to the title company (or bank, cannot remember the exact details at this time) which I think is similar to the situation described where an scammer inserted themselves and got the money instead. Either way, I made several phone calls the day of transfer to ensure details of the transaction.

[unofan]

Not sure if it is a more recent thing but when I closed on a house 2 years ago, this was recommended to me several times (and I did do it).

Every time I've closed on a house or refinanced, I just had to bring a single check to an in-person meeting that covers all closing related-costs. I'm confused why you need to deal with the title company directly?

[WisconsinWildcard]

I would certainly have never thought to call the title company directly on a verified number to confirm the transfer details - but you bet your *** I will the next time.

Not sure if it is a more recent thing but when I closed on a house 2 years ago, this was recommended to me several times (and I did do it).