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FBI Warns Homebuyers of Growing Threat

Reports show over 500% increase in real estate internet crime from 2016 to 2017

Cybercrime often brings to mind the image of a hacker huddled over a computer in a dark room, breaching the security of huge companies like Equifax, or even the IRS.  But one of the fastest growing categories of internet crime, the FBI warns, involves real estate transactions.

According to data provided by the FBI, in fiscal year 2017, almost $1 billion was “diverted or attempted to be diverted” from real estate purchase transactions and wired to “criminally controlled” accounts.  That figure is up explosively from 2016, when the FBI counted $19 million in wire-transfer frauds affecting home buyers.

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