Protecting Your Manufactured Home Deposit and Closing Funds From Wire Fraud
Closing fraud on a home purchase works by sending you payment instructions that look like they came from escrow, your lender or an agent, close to the day you expect to send money. The instructions are real in every respect but one: the account belongs to a criminal. One routine defeats it. Before any money moves, verify every payment instruction by phone with a person you know, at a number you were given at the start of the transaction, never one from the message that carried the instructions.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s guidance on mortgage closing scams is the basis for the routine below. The private-sale sequence this protects is in buying from a private seller.
How the scam reaches you
Someone involved in the transaction has an email account that has been compromised, or the criminal has learned enough about your purchase to imitate one. They watch for the point where money is about to move: the deposit when your offer is accepted, or the cash to close before signing. Then a message arrives, often from an address that differs from the real one by a letter, saying the wire instructions have changed, with a new account and a reason that sounds routine.
The message is urgent and plausible because it is timed to a day you were already expecting to send money. Once a wire lands in the criminal’s account, it is moved on at once, which is why speed matters afterwards and why prevention matters more.
Red flags in a payment message
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Wire instructions have “changed” or been “updated” | The signature of the fraud; verify by phone before anything else |
| The sender’s address is slightly different from earlier messages | A look-alike account |
| Pressure to send today, or before a deadline you were not told about | Urgency to prevent you from checking |
| A request to keep the change quiet, or to confirm by replying | Isolating you from the people who could catch it |
| A phone number in the message to call for confirmation | The criminal’s number; use the one you already had |
| Account details for a bank or name that does not match escrow’s | The destination is not escrow |
The verification routine
Set the routine up at the start of the transaction, not on the day the money moves.
Verifying before any money moves
- Identify two people you know at the start Your escrow officer and your loan specialist, met in person or spoken to by phone when the transaction opened. Write down their names and the phone numbers you were given then.
- Treat every payment instruction as unverified, including the first set and especially any change.
- Call the known number Not a number in the message, not a link, not a reply. A person you know, at the number you wrote down.
- Read the details back Bank name, account number, account name, amount. Have the person confirm each one.
- Confirm the method Ask whether escrow is expecting a wire at all, or whether another channel is available.
- Send only after the call, and tell escrow by phone that it has been sent so they can confirm receipt.
- Never email financial information Account numbers, identification and statements go through the secure channel the lender and escrow ask for.
Ask escrow which payment channels it accepts
A wire is not the only way to pay a deposit or closing funds, and asking at the start gives you options. Many escrow companies accept a cashier’s check delivered in person to an office you have visited, which removes email from the chain altogether. Some accept other methods. Ask escrow what it accepts, what it needs on the check, and when it must arrive to fund on time, and confirm by phone whichever you choose.
Pay the deposit into escrow under written instructions, never to the seller directly, for a different reason: it is what makes your contingencies enforceable. Deposits and contingencies explains that side, and who does what in a closing explains which party actually handles your money, so you know who a legitimate instruction would come from.
If money has gone to the wrong place
Speed is the only lever you have.
Reporting the error as soon as possible can increase the likelihood that you will be able to recover your money, as the Bureau’s guidance puts it. Nothing here promises recovery, which is the reason the routine above exists. The same discipline applies to the payment instructions in your loan documents, covered in what to review before you sign: confirm by phone before you set up the first payment.
