Picture this home purchase nightmare: After weeks of getting ready, you’re about to go to closing. Moving trucks are on the way. Based on instructions you received by email from your realty agent, you’ve wired closing funds to the bank account the agent specified.
But the tens of thousands of dollars you wired never arrived. Instead the money got diverted to an account set up by offshore cyber pirates who’ve hacked into your realty agent’s email account, watched the agent’s communications with you, and the title and settlement service providers, then waited for the right moment to pounce. The money is gone — hijacked to an unknown account in some foreign country. You can’t get it back. And there’s no way you can buy the house.