Top Security Threats in the Title Industry

Wire fraud, phishing, spoofing, impersonation fraud and other internet-based insecurities continue to be big concerns for title and real estate professionals. We want you to have the knowledge and resources to take action against these security threats.

Email Security Threats

• Wire fraud: financial fraud involving telecommunications or information technology.
• Phishing: the fraudulent practice of sending emails that appear to be from reputable companies to convince individuals to steal personal information, such as username and passwords and banking information
• Spoofing: when one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data, thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage.

Because phishing emails are often generic, we’ve learned to identify, detect and ignore or delete these attempts.

Spear Phishing...It’s Getting Personal
Spear phishing is a special type of phishing that can be much harder to detect. In our industry, these spear phishing emails often include specific information about a real estate transaction. The attacker may be spoofing an email address for someone involved in your real estate transactions. Or, the phisher may have gained access to the email account of that individual and is sending emails that appear to come from a buyer/seller, real estate agent, mortgage broker or lender with information specific to one of your transactions. This makes it more difficult to identify as phishing.

You must be vigilant to protect yourself and your customers. If a perpetrator were to gain access to your email account, they could use it to send fraudulent wiring instructions to a party of one of your real estate transactions. And to make matters worse, the perpetrator may wait weeks or months to strike, using that time to gather very specific data about your transactions. As a result, you may not even realize that your account has been compromised until it's too late.

How to Prevent Unauthorized Access to Your Email
Your ability to recognize spear phishing schemes coupled with a healthy amount of skepticism are some of the best tools for prevention. Another measure that will help prevent unauthorized access is using multi-factor authentication for your email account. This feature is available for our customers who have a RamQuest/op2 managed Office 365 email account, and we strongly encourage you to enable it. When you're ready, contact Support and we'll walk you through the steps!

How Do I Know If My Account Has Been Compromised?
Here are several things that you can watch for that may suggest your email account has been compromised:

• Have you clicked on a link or opened an attachment that prompted you for your password?
• Have you received calls from people not involved in your transactions?
• Do you have missing emails or are emails being redirected to a folder other than your Inbox?
• Have your business partners received emails that appeared to come from you that you didn't send?
• Are you receiving bounce-back messages from recipients that you didn’t send messages to?

What If I Think My Account Has Been Compromised?

• Change your password if you are able and make it stronger (no personal information such as names, birthdays or addresses).

• Check for email forwarding in Office 365. This link will help you know what you're looking for. If you find any forwarding that you have not set up, delete them immediately.
• Check for Inbox rules in Office 365. As with email forwarding, if you find a rule and it's not yours, delete it immediately.

Your email security is a top priority for RamQuest. Recognizing and knowing how to avoid these security threats is critical to keeping your email secure. As an op2 customer, if your email access is blocked and you cannot change your password or you need any additional help, we're here for you! Contact your RamQuest Support Team at 214.291.1616.

Seller Impersonation Fraud

This real estate scam happens when fraudsters pretend to be the owner of a property in order to sell it and/or steal proceeds from it. The fraudsters take on several different tactics:

• Quick transactions: The scammer will want to sell the property quickly, sometimes below market value and prefers cash transactions.
• Remote Communication: Each part of the communication process is typically handled through email or text messaging.
• Remote Sellers: The scammer claims to live far from the property and relies on this to avoid in-person meetings.
• New Listings: The property is newly listed, and the seller has no prior relationship with the real estate agent.
• False Identification: The seller provides fraudulent identification documents.

Sometimes seller impersonation fraud is harder to recognize. Here are some steps you can take to help identify it:

• Verify the seller’s identity: Use multiple forms of identification. Use public records to help confirm.
• Secure Communication: Avoid handling sensitive information over email or text and only use secure communication channels.
• Utilize Multi-Factor Authentication: An MFA helps confirm email account and other systems involved in the transaction.

Additional Resources
Here are some additional security and fraud prevention resources:

• Protecting Title Transactions Webinar
• Strengthening Your Security Framework Webinar 
• Protecting Against Seller Impersonation Fraud
• Wire Fraud (ALTA Membership required)
• Best Practices (ALTA Membership may be required to access some content)

It’s also a good idea to check with your underwriter for any additional resources they may have about wire fraud, spoofing or phishing.