Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the month of the First American data beach after receiving new information from the company.
DENVER (KDVR) — Americans lost more than $213 million in wire fraud scams, according to the FBI, and a Denver couple is fighting to get their money back after losing more than $30,000 in a wire fraud case that involved their title company.
“It feels horrible, we worked really hard for that money,” said Abby LeMay.
Abby and Drew LeMay were excited to buy their dream home, but their dreams were crushed when they sent their $30,000 payment for closing costs to what they thought was their title company.
“I had to leave work, I was having a panic attack at that point,” said Drew.
The LeMays told FOX31 they are looking into legal representation due to an email they received that leads them to believe the company’s system was compromised, allowing the hacker to get their information and send them a phony transfer email.
First American, a title insurance and settlement services company, provided the following statement to FOX31:
First American conducted a thorough investigation into this matter and concluded the customers were unfortunate victims of a spoofed email sent from outside of our network that contained fake wiring instructions.
Phishing attacks from fraudsters using spoofed emails purporting to be companies or organizations are increasingly common and sophisticated. Incidents like this are why First American Title regularly promotes awareness of wire fraud prevention best practices to consumers, including encouraging real estate agents to educate buyers early and often on wire fraud prevention and providing consumers written and verbal warnings at multiple points during a transaction.”
First American
The couple also showed FOX31 an email they received with wiring instructions that appeared to be legitimate, but a closer inspection showed an escrow officer’s email address was slightly altered. They are asking the company to conduct a deeper investigation.
Cybersecurity expert Mitch Tanenbaum of Cybercecurity spent more than two decades operating mortgage and title businesses in Colorado. He told the Problem Solvers that scammers utilize a variety of methods to get information they can use to commit fraud and move the funds to offshore accounts within a matter of minutes.
“What the bad guys do is they compromise the real estate agent’s email, and they see all of the emails going back and forth between the buyer, the seller, the real estate agent the title company — all the parties to the transaction — and then they spoof that email,” said Tanenbaum.
He urges all homebuyers to contact their bank or title company before sending a transfer to verify details.
“Call the number that you have, this is not the number that’s in the email,” he said.
Drew told FOX31 they wanted to come forward to warn others about the potential for wire fraud.
“Bring a check to closing; pay it in person,” he said.
First American confirmed that a major data breach occurred in December, but their cyber security team ensures the breach is completely unrelated to this case.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies told FOX31 that the facts of each wire fraud case will dictate the response from a title insurance company. Complaints should be filed with the Colorado Division of Insurance Consumer Services team at 303-894-7490 or through email.