Brett Beckett, VP of Finance & Strategy at Independence Title, has seen the devastating impact of wire fraud. Before joining Independence Title, he experienced an incident at a previous company that highlighted the limitations of traditional fraud prevention methods.

"We were following the gold standard at the time—verbal verification," Brett recalls. "The issue was that the process wasn't followed exactly because there was a very unusual circumstance in which everyone felt like it would be okay to deviate. And it turned out to not be okay."

The result: A significant financial loss.

Seeking guidance, Brett turned to CertifID’s co-founders, Tom and Tyler. "I picked up the phone, and said, what do we do? And they jumped in and were so incredibly helpful to help resolve that situation that I became a lifelong fan," he says.

That experience shaped his approach to fraud prevention, and when he transitioned to Independence Title, he saw an opportunity to take a stronger approach against wire fraud.

Making transactions more secure and efficient

By 2021, real estate transaction volumes had surged in the post-COVID housing boom. Independence Title needed to process transactions efficiently without compromising security. However, verbally verifying details was proving to be time-consuming and operationally difficult.

"We were spending a lot of time doing verbal verifications, playing a lot of phone tag," Brett explains. "We decided to implement CertifID at that time, and saw a ton of workflow operational savings there."

The timing couldn’t have been better. "Fortunately for us, that was at the right time because the realm of wire fraud changed. And CertifID has been a huge part in preventing wire fraud and helping us protect our customers over the last three years."

Catching fraud earlier in the process

Independence Title’s existing policies had helped them avoid major fraud incidents, but the nature of wire fraud was evolving rapidly. CertifID’s platform provided stronger security, particularly through CertifID Match, which verifies identities at the start of the transaction to stop fraud—namely seller impersonation fraud.

"Match gives us a lot of peace of mind. We caught our first few instances of seller fraud at the time of requesting the payoff. And so being able to move that entire process to the beginning of the transaction and make sure that we validate who we're working with at the time that we start working with them has helped a lot of those cases."

And in cases where fraud did occur, CertifID’s Fraud Recovery Services was extremely helpful. "There's very little control that we have over the buyers sending their funds to us. No matter how much we tell them, there's always a chance that something will be intercepted and misdirected. In the events that have happened, we've always engaged CertifID's fraud recovery team, and they've done an incredible job at doing things that we probably would not have had the same outcome without them."

An essential part of a modern title operation

Having experienced both traditional and technology-driven fraud prevention strategies, Brett is confident in the role CertifID plays in protecting title companies and their customers.

"I know there are companies out there today, smaller companies that aren't utilizing services like this. It scares me to think about it because we're in such an exponentially more advanced world of fraud. If we were to go in a time machine and play the future out without using a service like CertifID, it's not really possible for us to tell what those losses may have been."

And if he were starting from scratch? "If I were starting a new title company today, in no world would I consider building out a technology package that did not include CertifID."

For Independence Title, CertifID has not only enhanced security but also improved operational efficiency—providing confidence in an era where fraud threats continue to evolve.

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