Wire fraud has more than doubled over the past two years, and since 2013 has cost more than $12 billion in the U.S. Between 2016-18 the incidence of wire fraud grew 136 percent, attracting the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NAMB.

As a result, NAMB has urged members to share this information with their communities. “NAMB is encouraged by the extended conversations that the media, industry experts and neighbors are having on this multi-billion-dollar scamming reality that certainly threatens the many trusts our overall industry has built with consumers,” said Valerie Saunders, executive director of NAMB. “We want people to be confident that there are resources available to them to help avoid this devastating criminal element.”

Among the best practices, or in FBI vernacular tips, are ways to help originators and their clients understand the realities of wire fraud and help them prevent the crimes from happening to them.

Among the best practices are the following:

• Be vigilant: Homebuyers should first just be aware that they may be a targeted by scammers in this manner and should act accordingly to verify any suspicious correspondence associated with their home purchase or sale.
• Voice verify: It might seem cumbersome in an already long homebuying process but following up emails with a voice verification is a must. That's especially true if the email involves e-signing a document, logging into a new website, transacting money or supplying any kind of financial information.
• Talk to your bank: While not all banks may follow the guidelines you suggest, most will honor your request to not allow any wire transfers without a voice verification or other checkpoint from you. This is especially true for business accounts, but even individuals going through a real-estate transaction can request a note be added to their primary accounts to put additional steps in place before allowing wire transactions to go through.
• Don't react immediately to email: Emails asking you to take some type of action, purporting to be from a title company, attorneys, realtors, bank lawyers or others involved in a transaction may not be authentic. Regard any of them with suspicion, and should follow-up with them by calling phone numbers that were in your database before the questionable email arrived.

Email remains an important channel of communication with borrowers. Yet it exposes loan originators, and the companies they work for, to security risks.

Financial organizations—and originators in particularly since they are on the front line with borrowers—face a decision on how much security they want because it can undermine the lending experience. The security concern has to be balanced with borrowers’ preference for convenience. Keep it simple is preferred. At least until borrowers are victimized by identity theft.

Then, the responsibility, and reputation risk, fall solely on the originator and the firm. Lenders are responsible for ensuring the personal data of borrowers remains private, and yet, the risk of not taking steps to thwart a cyberattack is often overlooked.

According to a study by Halock Security Labs of email practices of lending firms, the use of unsecured email is not unusual, far from it. Consider the following:

• Fully 70% of originators allowed borrowers to send tax documents and other financial information as unencrypted email attachments.
• Only 12% provided a way of sending email securely.
• The reason for assuming this risk was to make the lending experience easier for the consumer.

Security standards are ancient and not much has been done to enhance them. But the tools used to illicitly gain access to the personal data have improved exponentially. For instance, senders can easily impersonate other people, including their email addresses. Recipients don’t pay enough attention to the address from which an email comes, and sometimes software is deployed to hide it. Nor is it unusual for people to send their passwords as plain text, through unsecured connections to mail servers.

Some trade groups are taking steps: the American Land Title Association, or instance, that outlines steps to protect confidential client information related to real estate sales. It calls for steps, such as establishing a written privacy and an information security program for protecting such information, in order to comply with federal and state laws.

Technology is available that can ensure that all parties to a transaction are protected—and risk is mitigated if not eliminated.

For many firms, combining email and web technology works best. Email can notify people that information is waiting for them, and a password-protected web connection can deliver it securely. To be sure, it’s a change for borrowers.

But the approach could play a role in providing effective security without making borrowers feel uncomfortable.

Walker and Dunlop has hired Trevor Blood as vice president in its Capital Markets group, which brokers commercial real estate loans through its vast network of capital providers. He is based out of the company’s Torrance, Cali., office and will play an integral role in the continued expansion of Walker and Dunlop’s geographic footprint across the United States.

Cliff Carnes, chief production officer of the company’s Capital Markets Group, stated, “We are pleased to welcome Trevor to the team. We are confident that he will be a great asset to the company and the continued growth of our Capital Markets team. Trevor has a strong track record and experience spanning from investment sales to mortgage banking, and we anticipate that he will make a meaningful impact on our platform very quickly.”

Prior to joining Walker and Dunlop, Blood served as a vice president at Pacific Southwest Realty Service where he focused primarily on correspondent loan originations with life companies and brokered loans to various capital providers. Within his first nine months of employment at PSRS, Mr. Blood sourced capital for over $200 million worth of commercial real estate transactions. In 2017, the team closed  $7.3 billion in total brokered volume with over 235 different capital providers, up 75 percent from 2016.