Closing Wire Fraud: What the FBI, FTC and CFPB Advise

October 19, 2026

Closing wire fraud is a scam in which a criminal sends fake payment instructions that look like they come from someone in your home purchase, and the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau all tell you to confirm a payment change through a second channel you already trust, such as a phone number you saved earlier, before you send money. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says the scam targets "all participants in real estate transactions," which it lists as buyers, sellers, real estate attorneys, title companies and agents. On an email that asks you to wire closing costs to a different account, the FTC says: "Don't do it," and gives the reason in three words: it's a scam. This guide is written for anyone with a closing coming up, including people shopping for homes for sale in Rockford. Gambino Realtors is a Rockford brokerage that has been in business since 1923, and it is not a bank, a law firm or a government agency. Everything below comes from federal agencies: IC3 public service announcements from 2018 and 2023, the FBI's 2025 IC3 Annual Report, FTC consumer advice, CFPB guidance and a FinCEN advisory. None of it is legal or financial advice. Your lender, your closing agent and your own attorney are the people who confirm what applies to your file. How the Scam Works, According to the Agencies The scam has a formal name. The FBI calls it Business Email Compromise, or BEC, and sometimes Email Account Compromise. IC3 describes it as "a sophisticated scam that targets both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests." IC3 says the scam targets people who are making real transfers of funds. IC3 says the scam is frequently carried out when someone compromises legitimate business or personal email accounts "through social engineering or computer intrusion to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds." In a home purchase, that means a criminal gets into the mailbox of a participant. The CFPB describes the same pattern from the buyer's side. Scammers target real estate professionals, "seeking to compromise their email in order to monitor email correspondences with clients and identify upcoming real estate transactions." Once the criminal is inside a mailbox, the IC3 2023 announcement explains what happens next. The criminal can "monitor the real estate proceeding and often time the fraudulent request for a change in payment type (frequently from check to wire transfer) or a change from one bank account to a different bank account under their control." In other words, IC3 says the fake request can be timed to the real proceeding. The CFPB says the messages usually show up days before the closing. In its handout for homebuyers, the agency writes that scammers send an email "posing as your agent, with last-minute changes for wiring or electronically transferring your mortgage closing funds." In its archived guidance, the CFPB adds that the sender may pose as the real estate agent, the settlement agent, a legal representative or another trusted individual, and that the email carries "false instructions for wiring closing funds." The FTC describes the same trick in plain consumer language. Its advice page says scammers sometimes send emails "impersonating your loan officer or another real estate professional." The email might ask you to wire the money to cover closing costs "to a different account." The FTC's instruction for that moment is "Don't do it," and its reason is that it is a scam. Who gets targeted The agencies do not limit the list of targets to buyers. IC3's 2018 announcement says victims "participating at all levels of a real estate transaction" have reported this activity. That includes "title companies, law firms, real estate agents, buyers and sellers." Victims most often report a spoofed email "sent or received on behalf of one of these real estate transaction participants with instructions directing the recipient to change the payment type and/or payment location to a fraudulent account." A spoofed email is one that has been made to look like it came from someone else. It also warns about links with "misspellings of the actual domain name." A recent case shows the pattern from start to finish. The FBI's 2025 IC3 Annual Report describes a complaint from August 2025. The individuals "were closing on a home when they received an email impersonating their legitimate attorneys." A wire "for over 449,000 dollars" went from their bank to the recipient bank. After they discovered the fraud, they reported it to their bank, and their attorneys "made separate attempts to contact the recipient bank with negative results." The report does not describe how the criminal learned of the closing. It only describes what the buyers received and what they did. Why real estate is a favorite target FinCEN, the Treasury bureau that tracks financial crime, wrote an advisory on this in July 2019. It states that "real estate transactions have been a particularly lucrative target for BEC schemes." It gives a reason tied to money: "The large dollar volumes involved in such transactions, whether for down payments on a property or the final transfer of proceeds upon closing, are an attractive target of opportunity for criminals." FinCEN then lists three weak points in common real estate processes. The first is that detailed public information about potential transactions and the people involved, "e.g., real estate agents and homeowners," is readily available. The second is that communication between the parties is generally done by email. The third is "a common lack of strong authentication processes for verifying identity and validity of instructions in associated communications." IC3 made a similar point in 2018. Criminals "will use information that is publicly available on real estate listing sites to target victims." That information "may include homes that are for sale and the progress of the sale such as 'under contract' as well as the contact information of the real estate agent." IC3 does not say that any particular listing or agent is unsafe. The numbers, and what they do and do not say The agencies publish numbers, and it helps to read them carefully. The IC3 2023 announcement says that from calendar year 2020 to calendar year 2022 there was a 27 percent increase in victim reports of BEC with a real estate nexus. In the same time frame there was a 72 percent increase in victim loss. IC3 offers one possible reason for the loss figure, saying it "also may be contributed to the rise in real estate costs over the last several years." IC3's 2018 announcement describes an earlier jump. From calendar year 2015 to calendar year 2017 there was "over an 1100% rise" in the number of BEC victims reporting the real estate transaction angle and "an almost 2200% rise" in the reported monetary loss. The 2023 announcement adds a note about the trend line. Real estate BEC reporting hit an all-time high in 2018, fell in the years after, had a minor spike in 2021 and rose again in 2022. The newest figures come from the 2025 IC3 Annual Report. In 2025, IC3 recorded 24,768 BEC complaints, with reported losses of 3,046,598,558 dollars. Those totals cover all BEC, in every industry. They are not a count of home purchases, and this guide does not claim that. What the FBI, FTC and CFPB Tell You to Do Before You Wire The advice from the three agencies lines up closely, which is useful. The steps below are drawn from the CFPB's closing scam guidance, the FTC's mortgage advice and the IC3 announcements. The order is a way to organize them, not an official sequence from any one agency. Step one: pick two trusted contacts and write down their numbers The CFPB's first step is to "identify two trusted individuals to confirm the closing process and payment instructions." Its examples are your real estate agent and your settlement agent. The agency says to discuss the closing process and money transfer protocols with them in person or by phone, and to "be cautious about exchanging any details about your closing over email." It then says to write down their names and primary phone numbers, and it points to its Mortgage Closing Checklist as the place to do that. Timing matters here. It says to use "only the phone numbers you saved," and it warns that scammers "can closely replicate the email address, phone number and format of an exchange from your agents." Both the CFPB and IC3 mention a code phrase. IC3's 2018 announcement explains why a code phrase can help on the phone. Victims "reported receiving phone calls" from criminals, and "some victims report they were unable to distinguish the fraudulent phone conversation from legitimate conversations." IC3's suggestion is to "establish code phrases that would only be known to the two legitimate parties." Step two: treat any change in how or where you pay as a warning sign IC3's 2018 announcement says "the best defense is to verify all requests for a change in payment type and/or location." It describes two common versions of the change. Criminals "often request that payments originally scheduled for check dispersal be made via wire instead." They may also "request changes to the original recipient's financial information." The 2023 announcement repeats the same pattern, a switch from check to wire or a switch from one bank account to another. The CFPB uses a similar phrase for the buyer. It tells homebuyers to "beware of last-minute changes to the closing process," and says such changes "can come by email and often appear to be from your real estate or settlement agent or someone close to the process." Step three: confirm by phone, using only the saved number The central instruction in the CFPB guidance is this: "Before wiring money, always confirm instructions with your trusted representatives. Never follow instructions contained in an email." The agency adds that you should verify the closing instructions, "including the account name and number," either in person or "by using the phone number you previously agreed to." The FTC gives the same direction in its own words. If you get a message like that, contact your lender, broker or real estate professional "at a number or email address that you know is real." The IC3 version is to use "secondary channels or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information." It also says to "be wary of any communication that is exclusively e-mail based and establish a secondary means of communication for verification purposes." The CFPB says the same thing about links and attachments. It advises you to avoid "clicking on any links or downloading attachments without first confirming with your trusted representatives." It also says plainly: "Do NOT email financial information. Email is never a secure way to send financial information." Step four: use the paperwork window you already have The CFPB points out one rule that helps with timing. "By law, you're required to receive a Closing Disclosure from your lender or closing agent at least three business days before you're scheduled to sign your paperwork." The agency describes the Closing Disclosure as a standard five-page form listing the final terms and costs of the mortgage loan, including the loan amount, interest rate, monthly payments, closing costs, and other costs and taxes. That rule is about the loan paperwork, and the agencies do not say the Closing Disclosure carries wiring instructions or is a defense against fraud. What the CFPB does say is that it is a period to ask questions, and it lists a question to put to your lender or closing agent early: "How much will I need to pay, and how do I pay?" For the Illinois side of who does what at a closing, see our guide Illinois Closing Roles: Broker, Attorney, Title Company. For the costs at a Rockford closing, see Transfer Taxes and Closing Costs in Rockford. Neither guide replaces the confirmation call the agencies describe. What the agencies say not to rely on Two warnings deserve their own mention. The first is about phone calls. IC3 reports that financial institutions have also described "phone calls acknowledging a change in payment type and/or location." The CFPB's way to verify is "by using the phone number you previously agreed to." The second warning is about how convincing the messages can be. The FBI's 2025 report says AI-enabled synthetic content "is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make." On BEC specifically, it says chat generators "can quickly create official-sounding emails," and that voice cloning "can also be used to request wire payment." The report is careful to add that "there are multiple BEC tactics, and not all are AI-enabled." If You Already Sent the Money The agencies agree that speed is the thing that counts after a bad wire. The FBI puts it as "time is of the essence." The FTC puts it as "no matter how you paid a scammer, the sooner you act, the better." The CFPB says reporting "as soon as possible can increase the likelihood that you'll be able to recover your money." There is a limit to what any of them promise. The FTC says that wiring money through services such as MoneyGram, Ria and Western Union "is like sending cash," and that "once you send it, you usually can't get it back." The CFPB says that if scammers succeed, "it can be very difficult to get your money back." IC3 says "different financial institutions have varying policies" about recalling funds. None of these agencies guarantees a recovery, and this guide does not either. The steps, in the order the FBI gives them The 2025 IC3 Annual Report gives this guidance: "If you discover a fraudulent transfer, time is of the essence. Immediately, contact your financial institution and request a recall of the funds along with any necessary indemnification documents." The second instruction is to file a complaint at ic3.gov "regardless of the amount lost," and to "be sure to include the full transaction details in your report." The 2018 announcement adds a middle step. After contacting your financial institution, it says, "contact your local FBI office and report the fraudulent transfer." Then comes the complaint at ic3.gov. The announcement says that for BEC victims, the site bec.ic3.gov is available. The CFPB's version is shorter. Contact your bank or wire-transfer company immediately and "ask for a wire recall." Then "file a complaint with the FBI" through the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The FTC's article on what to do if you were scammed, updated in June 2026, covers wire transfers with three instructions: "Report it to the wire transfer company immediately." "Tell them a scammer tricked you into sending money." "Ask them to refund your money." The FTC also recommends reporting scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. What the FBI's recovery team does The 2025 report describes a unit called the IC3 Recovery Asset Team, which "streamlines communications with financial institutions and FBI field offices to assist in the freezing of funds." It calls its process the Financial Fraud Kill Chain. For 2025 the report lists 3,900 incidents, 1,163,919,846 dollars in attempted theft and 679,013,183 dollars frozen, a 58 percent success rate. Those figures cover every kind of fraud the team handled, not only home purchases, so they are not a forecast for any one closing. The report does include one real estate example, and it is the August 2025 case described earlier. After the buyers filed their IC3 complaint, the team "immediately initiated" the freeze process. The recipient bank reported that "the full amount was still in the account and on hold." The report presents that as one case. It does not say how often the same outcome happens, and it should not be read as a promise. Bottom Line Closing wire fraud works by getting between a real payment and a real recipient. The agencies describe it the same way and fix it the same way: decide who your two trusted contacts are before the closing week, write down their phone numbers, treat any change of bank account or payment method as a warning, and confirm every wiring instruction by calling a saved number before you send money. The CFPB says never to follow instructions contained in an email. If you ever do send money to the wrong account, call your bank first and ask for a wire recall, then file at ic3.gov. The agencies say to act quickly, and they are clear that recovery is not guaranteed. If you are about to buy and are looking at homes for sale in Rockford, put the phone call on your closing checklist now. For a wider look at how Gambino Realtors covers buying in the Rockford area, see the Illinois Real Estate Guide: Every Gambino Realtors Article. That is a lot of detail, but the closing itself comes down to one phone call. Here are the questions that come up most often about wire fraud before a closing. Frequently Asked Questions What is closing wire fraud? It is a scam in which a criminal sends false payment instructions that look like they come from someone in your home purchase, such as your agent, settlement agent or attorney. The FBI calls it Business Email Compromise. IC3 says it targets buyers, sellers, real estate attorneys, title companies and agents, and that the criminal may time the request to change a payment from a check to a wire or move it to a different bank account. The CFPB says the messages often arrive days before closing. How do I know a wiring instruction is real? The CFPB says to confirm instructions with your trusted representatives and never follow instructions contained in an email. Verify the account name and number in person or by calling the phone number you agreed on earlier. The FTC says to contact your lender, broker or real estate professional at a number or email address that you know is real. A number copied from the suspicious message does not count, because the CFPB warns scammers can closely copy the phone number and format of your agents' messages. What if I get an email changing the bank account the day before closing? Treat the change as a warning sign. IC3 says the best defense is to verify all requests for a change in payment type or location, and the CFPB tells buyers to beware of last-minute changes to the closing process. Do not reply to the email or click anything in it. Call the saved number for your settlement agent or real estate agent, ask whether they sent it, and do not wire until a person you reached on that number confirms the instructions. Can the money be recovered after a fraudulent wire? Sometimes, but no agency promises it. The FTC says money sent by wire is like cash and you usually cannot get it back. The CFPB says it can be very difficult. IC3 says to contact your financial institution right away to request a recall and then file at ic3.gov. The FBI's 2025 report describes an August 2025 case in which the recipient bank reported that the full amount was still in the account and on hold after a freeze request, but it presents that as one case, not a rule. Who should I contact first if I sent money to the wrong account? The FBI and the CFPB both start with your bank or wire-transfer company. Ask for a wire recall right away. IC3 also says to request any necessary indemnification documents, then file a complaint at ic3.gov, or bec.ic3.gov for business email compromise victims. The 2018 announcement adds that you should contact your local FBI office. The FTC says to tell the wire transfer company that a scammer tricked you into sending money and ask them to refund it. Is a phone call from my agent or title company enough to verify instructions? The CFPB says to verify by using the phone number you previously agreed to. IC3 reports that victims received calls from criminals and some could not tell the fraudulent conversation from a legitimate one. Both agencies suggest a code phrase known only to you and the real contact. Does the Closing Disclosure protect me from wire fraud? The sources read for this guide do not say that. The CFPB says you must receive a Closing Disclosure at least three business days before you sign, and that it lists the final loan terms and costs. It is a time to ask questions, including the CFPB's suggested one, how much will I need to pay and how do I pay. The CFPB's separate scam guidance still says to confirm any payment instructions with trusted contacts by phone before wiring. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is closing wire fraud?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It is a scam in which a criminal sends false payment instructions that look like they come from someone in your home purchase, such as your agent, settlement agent or attorney. The FBI calls it Business Email Compromise. 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