June 2018 Mortgage Market Share Report

June 20, 2018

On June 11^th the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests of 42 individuals in the United States, 29 in Nigeria and 3 others allegedly involved in a massive business email compromise (BEC) scheme. ?Operation WireWire? succeeded in recovering approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers and seized another $2.4 million in cash. ?Read more about it here: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/international-bec-takedown-061118

BEC, also known as cyber-enabled financial fraud, is a sophisticated scam targeting employees at companies with access to large sums of money in order to trick them into wire transferring funds to bank accounts controlled by the perpetrators. These same criminals also exploit individuals including real estate purchasers and the elderly by convincing them to wire money to bank accounts controlled by the criminals.

John Bethell Title employs several layers of technical and verification processes to ensure that our clients? funds are safe. Nevertheless, the reality is that business email is only as secure as the weakest link in the chain. Professionals that continue to use public domains (i.e. gmail, Hotmail & yahoo) for their business communication, or conduct business over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, or fail to maintain updated name brand virus and spyware protection on all their devices, place all of us at risk.

When the market is as frenzied as it is now, it?s more important than ever to take the time to be careful. Tell your buyers to call and verify wire instructions. Let them know that John Bethell Title will not change wire instructions in the middle of a transaction. A healthy level of skepticism is required.

John Bethell Title will be hosting the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours on Wednesday, July 18^th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. You?re all invited to attend and check out our new digs. We?re eagerly looking forward it!

~ John Bethell