Every month, Linda Craft Team, REALTORS hosts a free Dinner & Discussion for our clients. No sales pitch, no obligation, just a real dinner and a real conversation with a local expert on something that actually matters to their lives. This time, the topic was wire fraud, one of the fastest-growing risks in real estate today, and we do this because closing a transaction is rarely the only thing going on in a client’s life. We think our job includes helping with the rest of it too.
This past session, we invited Bayne Schulstad, owner of Triangle CompuDocs, to talk with our clients about cybersecurity. He has run his IT company since 2011 and has worked in the field since the late 1990s. What he shared has real, direct implications for anyone buying or selling a home in Raleigh, so we wanted to share it more broadly.
Bayne also joined us for an episode of our podcast, Real Estate Right Now, ‘Could a Hacker Already Be Inside Your Next Deal?‘ If you want even more on this topic, that conversation covers similar ground from a different angle.
Wire Fraud Is a Real and Growing Threat in Real Estate
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center report, released in April 2026, found real estate fraud losses climbed sharply. Reported losses reached $275.1 million in 2025, up 32 percent from the year before. Business Email Compromise, the scheme behind most real estate wire fraud, accounted for $3.04 billion in losses across all sectors last year alone. Once money leaves a fraudulent account internationally, recovery becomes extremely difficult.
Bayne put it plainly during his talk: scammers specifically target real estate transactions with “urgency, secrecy, gift cards, wire requests.” A criminal doesn’t need to hack a bank to steal a down payment. They just need one buyer to believe a fake email at exactly the wrong moment.
The FBI’s own 2025 report includes a case that shows exactly how this plays out. A senior victim in Missouri, in the middle of closing on a property, received a compromised email that appeared to come from the title company. It contained new wire instructions for more than $1.3 million. This is not a hypothetical risk. It is happening to real people closing on real homes.
How We Handle This at Linda Craft Team
We have a firm policy that Bayne referenced directly in his talk. We will only notify a client of a wire transfer change verbally, by phone, never by email. If you ever receive an email claiming to be from us with new wire instructions, that email did not come from our team. Call us directly using a number you already have, not one provided in the email itself, and confirm before doing anything else.
This single policy exists because of exactly the pattern the FBI’s data describes. Criminals monitor transaction email threads, learn the timeline, then send a convincing message with “updated” instructions right before closing. The email often looks completely legitimate, correct names, correct transaction details, correct timing. Fraudsters often strike right around key transaction milestones, when a due diligence period ends or a home appraisal clears, since those are exactly the moments when a buyer expects new instructions to arrive. The only way to stay safe is to never trust wiring instructions that arrive by email alone.
It’s worth saying plainly: not every agent has a formal policy like this in place, and that’s not a knock on any individual agent’s skill or care. A solo agent, or an agent without a dedicated team structure behind them, may simply not have had the chance to build these kinds of systems the way a larger, established team can. We wrote more about what a listing agent actually does throughout a transaction, and this kind of protection is a real part of it, one worth having and worth sharing, since it protects clients regardless of how the rest of a transaction goes.
A Cautionary Story From the Industry
During his talk, Bayne described a situation at a different real estate firm, not ours. A boss’s email account was spoofed, and an employee received a message that appeared to come from a leader at the company, asking for a list of transactions and closing dates. She sent the information. Fortunately, it did not turn into a larger loss that time, but it easily could have.
His advice applies to any unexpected request, even one that looks like it came from someone you know well. If anything about an email feels off, pick up the phone and call the person directly rather than replying to the email or clicking anything inside it.
What to Watch For in a Phishing Email
Bayne walked our clients through the specific red flags scammers rely on:
- Check the actual sender address, not just the display name. An email claiming to be from a familiar company or person can still come from an unrelated account.
- Be suspicious of urgency. Messages that pressure you to act “right now” or claim your account will be locked are designed to make you skip the careful thinking you’d normally do.
- Don’t click links or attachments you weren’t expecting. Hover over a link first to see where it actually leads before clicking anything.
- When in doubt, go directly to the source. If a company claims there’s an issue with your account, navigate to their website yourself rather than clicking through the email.
Passwords, Multi-Factor Authentication, and Passkeys
Reusing the same password across multiple sites is one of the most common vulnerabilities Bayne sees. If one site is compromised, criminals will try that same password everywhere else, your email, your bank, everything. A password manager, or a memorable passphrase built from unrelated words, is a simple, meaningful upgrade.
Multi-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection, though not all forms are equal. A text message code is better than nothing, but an authenticator app is stronger, since criminals have found ways to intercept texts in some cases. Passkeys, now offered by most major websites, are the strongest option currently available, since they tie your login to your actual device rather than a password at all.
A Real Scam, In Real Time
During the discussion, one of our own team members, Michelle, shared something that had happened to her just weeks earlier. She received a text that read, “Hey mom, this is John, I dropped my phone in the toilet, I’m using someone else’s phone, call me immediately.” It looked and felt exactly like a message from her real son. She recognized it as a scam only because she’d just learned to watch for exactly this pattern.
It’s a genuinely unsettling example of how convincing these messages have become. And it’s exactly why we think events like this are worth everyone’s time, not just people who consider themselves “bad with computers.”
The FBI actually tracks this specific pattern. It’s officially called a “distress scam,” and reported losses tied to it topped $5 million in 2025 alone, with criminals increasingly using AI voice cloning to make a fake call sound exactly like a real family member in trouble. Older adults are also disproportionately affected by cybercrime overall. The FBI reports that Americans 60 and older lost $7.75 billion in 2025, a 59 percent increase from the year before, with an average loss of $38,500 per victim.
Beyond Wire Fraud: Dark Web Monitoring
Bayne also spoke about services that scan the dark web for your personal information and remove it from data broker sites that sell it. He personally uses one and said it removed over 1,300 references to his home address, personal email, and business information. Fewer of your details circulating publicly means fewer opportunities for a scammer to sound convincing in the first place.
Why We Do This Every Month
We host these Dinner & Discussion events because we believe real value to our clients extends past the closing table. Past topics have covered everything from cybersecurity to tax strategy to helping aging parents navigate downsizing. We think of it as one more way we stay in your corner long after your transaction closes, and it costs you nothing but an evening.
If you’re a past or current client and haven’t joined one of these, take a look at our upcoming Dinner & Discussion events, we’d genuinely love to have you at the next one.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Criminals monitor email communication during a transaction, learn the timeline and details, then send a fraudulent message with “updated” wire instructions right before closing. The email often looks completely legitimate. The buyer wires funds believing they’re paying the title company or closing attorney, and the money goes to the criminal instead.
According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, released in April 2026, real estate fraud losses reached $275.1 million in 2025, a 32 percent increase from the previous year. Business Email Compromise, the primary method behind these losses, accounted for $3.04 billion across all sectors.
We will only notify a client of a wire transfer change verbally, by phone, never by email. If you receive an email claiming new wire instructions, call our office directly using a number you already have to confirm before taking any action.
Contact your bank immediately, since funds can sometimes be recalled within the first 24 to 72 hours if they haven’t cleared. Then notify your title company or closing attorney and file a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
Yes. Multi-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection beyond a password alone, making it significantly harder for someone to access your accounts even if your password is compromised. Passkeys currently offer the strongest protection available on most major websites.
We’re In Your Corner, Even After Closing
Real estate involves some of the largest financial transactions most people will ever make. That’s exactly why criminals target it so specifically. If you ever have any doubt about a wire instruction, an email, or anything that feels slightly off during your transaction with Linda Craft Team, REALTORS, call us directly. We would always rather answer an unnecessary question than have a client lose money to a scam we could have helped prevent.