(NewsNation) — A retired Colorado teacher and her daughter are warning about the risks of real estate scams.

When she retired, Vickie Ragle was ready to buy her dream home. But hackers posing as a real estate agent and title company took her $200,000 down payment instead.

“We didn’t know that anything was wrong until we were in closing, we signed all the paperwork,” Ragle said.

When the title company went to check her paperwork, there was no record of the funds Ragle said she wired them. She had been the victim of a wire fraud scam, where hackers posed as her legitimate title company to get her to wire money to a fake account.

Ragle and her daughter said the emails sent by hackers were nearly identical to emails sent by the legitimate title company and real estate agent.

“I felt I was so careful. I was following the emails,” Ragle told NewsNation.

In 2021, the FBI said 11,578 million Americans were victims of real estate scams, losing a total of $350,328,166 to fraudsters.

To avoid falling victim to a wire fraud scam, the National Association of Realtors urges people to be cautious of any last-minute changes to closing costs or requests for money, and to always call before sending a wire transfer and follow up to make sure it has been received.

Once money has been wired, it’s nearly impossible to get back.

Sarah Ragle, Vickie’s daughter, said there are multiple agencies investigating the case but her mother’s savings are gone.

“We did all the right things, and while the bank froze the account, as of right now, we do not have anything back,” she said.