Don’t Be Fooled!
PHISHING
Phishing emails are more frequent and creative than ever, so it’s important that we stay diligent when reviewing and monitoring our inboxes. Our team recently completed a webinar dedicated to educating participants about privacy and security. Below are some tips we found most helpful when identifying a phishing email.
- Not personalized. For example: The introduction will read “Dear Customer”
- Poor grammar, overuse of capitalization and spelling errors.
- From a nondescript or incorrect email address.
- Reply-To address is different than sender’s address.
- Asks for account information.
- Contains threats and commands,
- No direct contact information given.
- Before clicking a link, hover over it to confirm that you are being directed to the site displayed.
WIRE FRAUD
In this day and age wire fraud is one area that places a company at higher risk. The people attempting to intercept funds are becoming more bold in their efforts and have an understanding of our industry.
We know our teams are on the front lines to act as the eyes, ears and voice that has proven time and time again to be worthwhile.
Our client presented us with an updated payoff from the existing lender. They had received an email from the borrower that the wiring instructions had been updated. Nicole Snyder, Lead Settlement Officer, recognized that this was out of the ordinary. She promptly called the client to confirm wire instructions and then found that the new payoff had in fact been altered to change the account number along with a few minor additions/deletions of wording of the wire portion. Thanks to her diligence, Nicole prevented a potential loss of $153,000.
Our team is always available to verify wiring instructions to ensure all available avenues are confirmed before proceeding.
