Mortgage closings are a top target for wire fraud. Criminals impersonate lenders, title companies, and real-estate agents to trick buyers into wiring their down payment to the wrong account. A few simple habits protect you — and we build protection in on our side too.
Golden rule: we will never email you new or changed wire instructions and ask you to send funds. If you receive wiring instructions by email or text — even if they look like they’re from us or your title company — stop and call a known number to verify before sending a dime.
How wire fraud works
Scammers monitor email during a transaction, then send a message that looks like it’s from your loan officer or escrow officer, with “updated” wire instructions pointing to their account. The email address is often a near-perfect lookalike. Once funds are wired, they are very hard to recover.
How to protect yourself
- Verify by phone, every time. Before wiring, call your escrow or title officer at a number you already know — not a number from the email — and confirm the instructions.
- Be suspicious of changes. Last-minute changes to wire instructions are a hallmark of fraud. Treat any change as a red flag until verified by phone.
- Confirm receipt. After you wire, call to confirm the funds arrived in the right account.
- Guard your email. Use a strong, unique password and two-factor authentication on the email you use for the transaction.
- Never send sensitive numbers by email. We won’t ask for your Social Security or account numbers through a general form or email — your loan team provides a secure method.
How Lexington protects your information
- We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards as federal law requires of mortgage companies, including access controls and encryption where appropriate.
- Your information stays with Lexington and is never sold, and your mobile and texting data is never shared for marketing. See our Privacy Policy.
- Documents are exchanged through a secure portal, not general email.
If you think you’ve been targeted
- Act immediately. If you wired funds to a fraudulent account, call your bank at once and ask them to recall the wire.
- Report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
- Call us at (855) 585-8800 so we can help and alert the parties involved.
