State of Wire Fraud 2025: What 1,500 consumers want real estate professionals to know about wire fraud

A small, non-descript flyer sitting on the bank teller’s desk warned of wire fraud. 

The couple standing nearby—buyers looking to purchase a new home in Utah—saw it out of the corner of their eyes just as they wired their closing funds. It sparked intrigue, then concern.

Did we wire our funds to the right place?

A frantic call to the phone number listed on their documents confirmed their suspicions: the phone line had been disconnected.

That last-minute email they received before wiring funds, informing them of sudden changes to their wiring instructions, was just a well-planned trap by a fraudster after their money. Their title company had been spoofed.

They looked at the bank teller in a panic, who shared unfortunate news: the wire transfer had already been processed and couldn’t be reversed.

$297,778—their life savings—was gone.

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Real estate’s growing threat with wire fraud

Unfortunately, this couple’s encounter with wire fraud is a story that is too often told: an unsuspecting client, eager or pressured to close during a real estate transaction, sends funds to a fraudster who knows just when to strike. While this story has a happy ending (Fraud Recovery Services was able to get their funds back), many others do not. 

The real issue, however, is that all of these cases could have been prevented.

For our State of Wire Fraud 2025 report, we surveyed over 1,500 home buyers and sellers to better understand their awareness of real estate wire fraud. Here’s what we learned about its impact on their lives.

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Why wire fraud is so rampant in real estate in 2025

Wire fraud has hit the real estate industry with increasing velocity over the last four years. 

In 2024, reported losses to the FBI Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) exceeded $12.5 billion, with real estate wire fraud accounting for an estimated $500 million of that total.

As cybercrime tactics evolve into more sophisticated schemes with AI, deepfakes, and voice spoofing, the real estate industry faces increasing odds. This is due, in part, to four key characteristics:

• Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is available from property records and listings
• Real estate businesses don’t require robust IT infrastructure to operate
• Cybersecurity standards are often left up to state-level jurisdictions
• Real estate transactions are high-dollar-value deals

For cybercriminals, this is a massive opportunity in an industry slow to adapt. For title agents, closing attorneys, and other real estate professionals, this is a security nightmare.

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Home buyers and sellers remain in the dark about wire fraud

If you’ve been in the industry for any amount of time, you likely are familiar with the dangers of wire fraud. You’ve attended webinars. You’re familiar with industry best practices. You’ve had training. You might even have a wire fraud warning in your email signature.

But your clients? Buying or selling property happens only a few times in their lives. There’s little chance of awareness and preparedness—unless it comes from you.

According to our findings, 52% of respondents were “not aware” or only “somewhat aware” of wire fraud risks before the closing process. Comparatively, 51% of respondents were “not aware” or “somewhat aware” in last year’s report.

Additionally, of those who knew, less than half (49%) of consumers were first informed about wire fraud by their real estate professionals. Few discussions are happening about the threats to what is the most important purchase of their lives.

Put simply, the industry is falling behind in keeping customers informed.

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First-time home buyers are 3x more likely to fall victim

This lack of awareness and education is also putting first-time home buyers (FTHB) at increased risk.

According to the survey, these “first-timers” fall victim to wire fraud during the closing process at a rate three times higher than that of those who have already bought or sold property.

These inexperienced buyers also overwhelmingly seek help from real estate agents. Most FTHB (35%) believe it’s their real estate agent’s responsibility to protect them from fraud, followed by their bank (28%) and their title agent or attorney (25%).

Compare this to the majority of experienced buyers who turn to their title agent first (35%), then their bank (30%), and finally, the real estate agent (20%).

‍The bottom line: all professionals have a duty to inform clients about these risks.

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Consumers are willing to pay extra for security

As critical as these insights are, manual education and verification take time that most busy real estate professionals just don’t have.

The good news? Investing in security can actually drive more business.An overwhelming majority of consumers (79%) said they’d be willing to pay more to work with a company that prioritized their security from wire fraud. This means that investing in automated wire fraud prevention solutions to verify bank details, authenticate identities, or send and secure payments could yield a great return.

For title agents and closing attorneys who feel too stretched to perform manual wire verification, this means three important things:

1. Security is a competitive differentiator your customers will value
2. You don’t have to risk fraud with manual verification just to protect your cash flow
3. Security is a long-term investment that will pay dividends

A fraud-free future is up to you

While understanding the state of the industry is critical, taking action is most important. Luckily, making progress in educating and protecting consumers and your team is well within reach. At CertifID, we offer support in three key ways: education, software, and insurance. We encourage you to join our weekly newsletter list and subscribe to our monthly webinar series on fraud prevention.

If you’d like to learn more about our industry-leading wire fraud prevention solutions, we'd love to show you in a quick demo.

For additional insights from our survey, download our State of Wire Fraud 2025 report.

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