Protect Your Down Payment: A Buyer's Guide to Wire Fraud

The single scariest moment of buying a home is often the wire: sending your entire down payment to a bank account you cannot see. Criminals know this, and real estate wire fraud has become one of the fastest growing scams in the country. The good news is that a few simple habits protect you almost completely.

How the scam works

Fraudsters monitor real estate email threads, sometimes for weeks. Near closing, they send an email that looks exactly like it came from your agent, lender, or title company, with new or updated wiring instructions. The account belongs to the criminal. Once the wire goes out, the money is very hard to recover.

The one rule that stops it

Never trust wiring instructions that arrive by email or text, even if they look perfect. Always call your escrow officer at a phone number you already have, not one from the email, and verify the account details out loud before you send a dollar. Keystone will never email or text you new wire instructions, and we verify every wire by phone before funds move.

A short safety checklist

Confirm wiring details by phone using a known number. Be suspicious of any last-minute change to account information. After you send a wire, call the receiving bank within a few hours to confirm it arrived. And if anything at all feels off, stop and call us. We would much rather answer a cautious question than help recover stolen funds.

We build this in

Protecting your money is not an afterthought at Keystone. Verification is built into every transaction, our portal is encrypted, and our team is trained to catch the warning signs. Your closing day should be a celebration, and keeping your funds safe is how we help make it one.