Zero down payment 
I have done wire twice this year for down payment closing costs, what I usually do:
-wait to receive wiring instructions
- search for the title company in Google (hard to hack Google, we spent a lot in preventing it
) - use the phone number to call the office make sure things look legit
- verify the phone numbers match what other reputable website have ,such as: https://www.redfin.com/openbook/title-company/portland-old-republic-title-sp575349
- call scrow officer and verify wire instructions.
I know is still not perfect, but has work well for me
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Oooh. Thatās a good oneācheck other peopleās websites. If you get 3 or more to match, youāre good. Then the hackers have to hack multiple websites at once.
How can this even happen? Usually escrow company uses big banks, their routing number and account number should be easy for sending bank to verify. Also thereās account name, that should be the escrow company name and there are only a few escrow/title companies around.
Iām curious how this can even happen. Itās hard to open a business checking acccount with an account name of Chicago Tite or Fidelity Tilte.
Also if the scammer is in US, why is it hard to transfer the money back or freeze the receiving account?
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The money gets transferred out of the receiving account immediately to a chain of accounts or withdrawn using mules in these sort of scams
Bagb, works because first time home buyers tend to be too excited and become careless. Yes the routing info would tell you that it is likely fraud.
Homembuyer is not at fault. Sending bank should be liable, professional wire transfer workers are not trained
Simple, use your phone and talk to the escrow officer.
We love our Tahoe escrow officer. We pick up the cashiers check at Wells Fargo and walk across the street to Placer Title. Makes for a pleasant social experience.
Technology just makes the experience less pleasant. And apparently less secure.
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Those approaches proposed so far wonāt work because experienced buyers know what to do and have developed their own authentication and verification methods.
This scam is of social engineering nature targeting to first time buyers who tend to be too excited and careless. This is an important point. The way to protect first time buyer is not to put the burden back to them. It should be the institution that should ensure fraud is near impossible. The key players who can help the first time buyer are the buying agent and the title company. Any suggestions that put burden back to the buyers wonāt work because they are first time buyers 
Used both wire and cashierās check last time. The banks must have known I needed some help since they waived my fees.
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True. And big banks are presumably not doing any sort of due diligence in this regard.
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Itās scary. I closed my refinance, and it asked what to do with the funds. I hand wrote āwire to escrow for home purchaseā on the doc. Iām using the same mortgage broker for both loans. They were supposed to set it up to wire to escrow for the purchase. I got an email from the refinance title company asking where to wire the funds for the purchase escrow. I have no idea wha would have happened if I hadnāt written that in. Iād have assumed the funds were there waiting for closing, and itās have been a mess when they werenāt. Iām not sure if theyād have sent a check or just waited for instructions.
They need a very specific wiring instruction. Loan agent just get your application going and then hands off
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The scammers never rest
āwhen a friend described Loom50 ā a scheme that promised participants Ā£400 from a Ā£50 investment within three days ā it piqued her interest.ā
For fās sakeā¦ come on
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