A real estate agency nearly wired $91,000 to a fraudster who had been silently intercepting emails between their agent and a buyer for three weeks. This is how it happened — and how we made sure it could never happen again.
Three weeks before closing on a residential property, a fraudster compromised the email account of one of Harborview's agents through a phishing link clicked on a personal device. Rather than immediately acting, the attacker silently monitored the inbox — reading every email exchanged between the agent, the buyer, and the title company.
On closing day, with perfect timing, the attacker sent an email to the buyer appearing to come from the agent. The email contained updated wire transfer instructions — a different account number than the real title company — and referenced specific details from prior conversations to appear completely legitimate. The buyer, seeing familiar names and deal-specific language, prepared to send $91,000.
The transfer was stopped only because the buyer called the agent directly to confirm — a step most buyers never take. The agency had been minutes away from a loss that would have devastated their client and their reputation.
The full email security upgrade was deployed across all 16 agent accounts within four days. Every agent went through a one-hour security briefing covering BEC tactics, phishing identification, and the new wire transfer verification protocol. The agency also notified their title company and buyer clients of the attempted fraud and the steps taken to prevent recurrence.
Six months later the agency has recorded zero security incidents. More importantly, their agents now communicate with clients from a position of confidence — and every buyer is informed of the verbal verification procedure before closing day arrives.
We audit and upgrade email security for real estate agencies and small businesses — MFA, advanced threat protection, domain authentication, and staff training. One upgrade can prevent a loss that no insurance policy fully covers.