Wire Fraud.

Criminals/hackers are trying to fake you into wiring money to them.

Among other things, they hack into e-mail accounts of various service providers involved in a real estate transaction (e.g., title agents, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and lawyers) and send you e-mails that look like legitimate emails from the proper party, but instruct you to wire money to the accounts of the criminals.

Do not rely on e-mailed wiring instructions.

We strongly recommend only relying on wiring instructions that come from a more secure source such as in person communication, a phone call that you initiated, or through secure mail or package services.

Before you wire any funds to any party, personally call the intended recipient to confirm the accuracy of the ABA routing number, SWIFT code or credit account number.

When you call the source of wiring instructions in steps 4 & 5, you should call a number that you know is the correct number. You should not get that phone number from a source that can be easily forged (suchas the phone number in an e-mail or a phone number from a website).

SAGE CAPITAL LENDING WILL NEVER PROVIDE YOU WIRING INSTRUCTIONS. If you receive an e-mail providing wiring instruction that purport to come from us, it is a fraudulent e-mail.

Don’t forget about generic identify theft. Don’t put sensitive personal information in an e-mail or in an e-mail attachment.