How to avoid wire fraud when closing on a house

How closing wire fraud works

The target is your down payment and closing costs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) describes the scheme as phishing that tries to divert those funds into a fraudulent account by confirming or suggesting a last-minute change to your wiring instructions. The message looks like it comes from someone already in your deal: the title company, the closing attorney, your agent or your lender.

The FBI files these cases under business email compromise. Its 2025 Internet Crime Report defines that as fraud carried out by compromising email accounts and other channels, including phone numbers and virtual meeting apps, to make an unauthorized transfer of funds. So the message can come from a real account that has been taken over, or from a look-alike, and the CFPB warns that scammers go after homebuyers in the days just before closing, when payment instructions are expected anyway.

Two cases from the FBI's annual reports show the pattern. In a March 2024 case handled by FBI Denver, buyers received a spoofed email from their supposed real estate agents asking them to wire $956,342 to finalize the closing. They realized it two days later. After they reported it, the FBI's Recovery Asset Team had the receiving account frozen and $955,060 was returned. In August 2025, buyers closing on a home got an email impersonating their attorneys and wired more than $449,000. After their complaint reached the FBI, the receiving bank confirmed the full amount was still in the account and put it on hold.

How often it happens

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 24,768 business email compromise complaints in 2025, up from 21,442 in 2024, with reported losses of about $3.05 billion. Its separate real estate category logged 12,368 complaints and $275.1 million in losses in 2025, up from 9,359 complaints and $173.6 million in 2024.

Neither figure is a clean count of closing wire fraud. IC3 defines its real estate category as losses from real estate investments or fraud involving rental or timeshare property, and the closing cases it describes are labeled business email compromise, a category that also covers attacks on companies. What the numbers do show is scale. Earlier, the CFPB reported FBI figures showing that attempts on real estate transactions rose 1,100 percent between 2015 and 2017, with an estimated loss of nearly $1 billion in 2017 alone.

Four checks before you send the money

Collect phone numbers and the plan early. The CFPB suggests identifying two trusted people who can confirm the closing process and payment instructions, for example your agent and your title company contact, and writing down their names and contact details while nothing is at stake yet. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) adds that you should talk through every step with your agent at the start, including the transfer of funds, and get wiring instructions from the recipient in person if you can.
Call before you wire, on a number you already had. Confirm the account name and number by phone with your trusted contacts. The CFPB's advice is to avoid phone numbers or links that appear in an email, because whoever wrote the email chose them.
Treat any change as a warning, and keep details out of email. NAR tells buyers to be suspicious of last-minute changes sent by email or voicemail and to examine any such request carefully. A new bank, a new account name or a sudden reason the usual account cannot be used should all send you back to the phone. The CFPB is blunt about the other direction too: do not email financial information.
Confirm receipt the same day. After the wire goes, NAR recommends calling the recipient right away, again on a known number, to confirm the money arrived. If it has not, you find out while there is still time to act.

What to do if you already sent it

Act within hours, not days. The FBI's 2025 report says that when you discover a fraudulent transfer, time is of the essence: contact your financial institution immediately and ask for a recall of the funds, then file a complaint at IC3 whatever the amount, with the full transaction details. The CFPB and NAR give the same order, your bank first and then the FBI.

Speed matters because of how recovery works. IC3's Recovery Asset Team asks receiving banks to freeze stolen money through a process called the Financial Fraud Kill Chain. In 2025 it handled 3,900 incidents involving about $1.16 billion in attempted theft and froze $679 million, a 58 percent success rate. In 2024 the rate was 66 percent. A freeze only works on money that is still sitting in an account a bank can hold, so every hour counts.

Tell your title company or closing attorney and your agent as well, on numbers you trust. In the August 2025 case, the buyers' attorneys also tried to reach the receiving bank themselves; the hold came after the FBI's request.

Common mistakes

Checking through a channel the scammer controls. Replying to the email to ask whether it is real sends your question to whoever is running the scam if the account is compromised or spoofed. A call that comes to you is no better: the CFPB tells buyers to be mindful of phone conversations, and IC3's definition of business email compromise includes compromised phone numbers. A call you place to a number you already had is a check. A reply or an incoming call is not.

Waiting to be sure before reporting. The recovery process only works while the money can still be frozen. Call your bank as soon as something looks wrong and sort out the details afterwards.

Relying on memory in the final week. The warning signs are easy to know and easy to forget when closing day is busy. ClosingTrail, a home closing countdown, puts a wire safety card at the top of its trail three business days before closing with the same three rules: verify wiring instructions by phone on a number you already had, treat an emailed change of account as a fraud signal, and be suspicious of last-minute changes to where the money goes. It never asks for account or wiring details.

This guide summarizes public consumer guidance from the CFPB, the FBI and NAR. It is not legal or financial advice. For your own closing, follow your lender, title company and agent, and call your bank right away if you think money has gone to the wrong place.

Frequently asked questions

Can a wire transfer for a house closing be reversed

Sometimes. Your bank can request a recall, and the FBI can ask the receiving bank to freeze the account through its Financial Fraud Kill Chain, which froze $679 million in 2025 with a 58 percent success rate. It is not guaranteed, and it only works while the money is still in an account a bank can hold, so report within hours.

When are homebuyers most at risk of wire fraud

In the days right before closing, when payment instructions are expected. The CFPB warns that scammers target homebuyers days before closing on their new home. That is also when your Closing Disclosure arrives, so expect official-looking email and verify every payment instruction by phone.

Is a phone call from my title company enough to trust new wiring instructions

Not if they called you. Hang up and call back on the number you collected at the start of the deal, not one given in the call or in an email. The CFPB tells buyers to check back with their trusted professionals whenever someone asks them to verify personal or financial information.

Where do I report real estate wire fraud

Call your bank or wire-transfer company first and ask for a wire recall. Then file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) with the full transaction details, whatever the amount. Tell your title company or closing attorney as well.

Should I email bank statements or account numbers to my closing team

The CFPB's advice is not to email financial information. Ask your lender or title company how they want documents delivered, and confirm that method by phone on a number you already had.