The greatest threat affecting real estate transactions currently is quite arguably wire fraud scams. You don't have to turn far to find a wire fraud or fraud attempt that hits close to home. As a Realtor you are responsible for ensuring that all systems you
use are fully secured to help prevent these attacks. Unfortunately, the vast majority of agents we encounter are not protected in the least from these scams. How can you protect yourself from these scams and protect your data, as well as your clients information while preventing the likelihood of a lawsuit if a wire scam is successful?
On an almost daily occurrence, our support team is faced with another client or prospective client who has been affected by this increasingly popular attack. Most attacks are successful because of insecure computers and email accounts. Real estate agents, as well as mortgage and title companies are being hit hard with attempts by hackers to gain access to clients information to compromise the transaction and reroute funds. When the attempts turn successful, your clients money is GONE, with little chance of recovery. Agents need to ensure they have done their due diligence of preventing these scams from affecting their clients. Lawsuits are popping up now, with the agent as the target because they simply are not taking the steps necessary to protect their accounts.
It is crucial that your system is protected by multiple levels of security as well as ensuring that your email accounts are properly secured and that's not just with a good password... as well as ensuring you have procedures in place to protect yourself and your clients from these scams. As a real estate agent the simplest & yet the most secure thing you can do is put in place our Agent Support Plan.
Our support plans not only provide you unlimited tech support when you need it, but puts in place Anti-Virus, 24/7 Checks, removes administrator access to the user level on your systems, puts in place a security policy on your active email accounts used for real estate business to help prevent your accounts from being compromised (the primary cause of the wire scams). We also provide your team with a checklist in case of a scam affecting you & your clients. While our systems we put in place are not 100% non-breachable, we can with certainty tell you that your risk level is dramatically reduced & we will work with law enforcement, attorneys & insurance companies in the dreaded event of a hack (if it happens on your end).
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