How to verify closing wire instructions on Mac: step by step for realtors in 2026

A wire fraud attempt at closing usually starts with an email that looks normal. It may appear to come from your client, the title company, or an escrow officer you already know. The message says the wire instructions changed. The new account belongs to a criminal, and the money is often gone before anyone notices.

What the wire fraud scam looks like on your Mac

Most attempts arrive in Mail or Gmail. Some come by text or a phone call. The pattern is simple. Someone copies a real thread, changes one detail, and sends it from a lookalike address. A capital I can stand in for a lowercase l, so the domain looks right at a glance. Sometimes the email comes from a real account that a criminal has taken over, so the address is correct and only the request is wrong.

What wire fraud at closing costs you and your clients

Money is the obvious cost, and it is the hardest one to recover. The FBI's 2025 figures show real estate fraud losses of $275.1 million, up from about $173 million the year before. That category is narrow. Closing wire fraud is often filed as business email compromise, which caused more than $2.77 billion in losses in 2024.

The sources above do not measure the hours lost to callbacks or closing delays. Budget your own time for verification, and note how long each callback takes.

Why wire fraud keeps working at closing

The scam works because it rides on normal habits. Wire changes are not rare in real estate. Many title companies see wiring change emails every month. A new account number feels routine, so people stop checking. These four patterns explain most of the risk.

• Email is easy to fake or take over.
• Bank checks do not catch every bad account.
• Buyers and sellers rarely expect it.
• Phone numbers inside emails can be fake too.

FinCEN's 2023 analysis found that individual homebuyers are hit hardest. It also found nearly 88% of real estate business email compromise transfers went to accounts at U.S. depository institutions, based on 2020 to 2021 data. Those accounts look normal to a bank. A bank check alone cannot prove the account belongs to your client.

How to verify closing wire instructions, step by step

Use this routine for every wire. That includes earnest money, a down payment, and seller proceeds. It takes a few minutes and needs no paid tools. Keep the order the same each time, so the steps become automatic.

1. Get the wire instructions from the title company or escrow officer early, and in writing.
2. Save that message or closing packet. It becomes your reference copy.
3. If any email changes an account detail, stop. Do not send money yet.
4. Find the title company's phone number yourself, from its official website or your closing file.
5. Call that number. Ask for the person by name, and confirm the new details aloud.
6. Ask them to confirm the final digits of the account and the exact amount.
7. Log the call with the date, time, person, and the number you dialed.
8. Send the money only after the call matches the reference copy.

A worked example of a wire callback

Here is a hypothetical example. In the final days before closing, your buyer forwards an email that looks like it came from the title company. It says the wire account changed. The logo and signature look right. You do not reply. You open the closing packet from earlier in the file, find the title company's main line, and call it.

The receptionist connects you to the escrow officer. The officer says the account never changed, and that the email came from a lookalike domain. You report it to the title company, tell your buyer, and save the message in the file. The check took a few minutes. The wire still went to the right place.

Red flags to check in the email itself

No single sign proves fraud, but several together should stop you. Treat any wire email with two or more of these signs as suspect. Each one is a reason to call, not a reason to panic.

• Urgency, such as a closing that must happen today or a deadline that cannot slip.
• A request to keep the call off the record or to skip the usual steps.
• A new account, a new bank, or a new routing detail that nobody mentioned before.
• A sender domain that is one letter off from the real one.
• A PDF bank form attached in place of the normal wire instructions.
• A different tone, or a signature that does not match earlier emails.

Edge cases that catch careful agents

Some changes are real. A client may move to a new bank, and a title company may update its account. The rule still holds. Call the person on the number from your earlier contact, not the number in the new message. A real change survives a callback. A fake change does not.

Sellers face the same risk on the payout side. A scammer can ask for proceeds to go to a new account after the closing date is set. CertifID's 2025 survey covered buyers and sellers for this reason. Apply the same callback to seller proceeds, even when the seller seems rushed or annoyed.

Mac settings and habits that help

Your Mac cannot tell you if a wire is safe. It can make a fake website harder to use, and it can help you keep your checks organized. Start with Safari. Choose Safari > Settings > Security, then turn on Warn when visiting a fraudulent website. Apple describes this as a warning when a site is a suspected phishing website. Press ⌘, to open Settings in Safari.

Mail is different. Apple's Mail guide covers blocking senders and sorting mail into Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. It does not describe phishing detection. Do not count on Mail to flag a fake wire email. Your callback is the protection.

• Keep macOS and your browser updated, so security fixes arrive.
• Turn on two-step verification for your email account.
• Keep verified phone numbers in one shared sheet, not in email threads.
• Do not forward wire details to a personal email address.

Mistakes people make with wire verification

• Calling the number in the suspicious email, even when it looks right.
• Assuming the bank will catch it, because a bank flag or a clean transfer does not prove the account is correct.
• Trusting an inbound call, where the caller reaches you instead of you reaching them.
• Talking about wires for the first time in closing week.
• Assuming only first-time buyers are at risk. They face more risk, but sellers and experienced buyers are targeted too.
• Skipping the log, then forgetting what was confirmed and by whom.

If the money already went out

Act in this order. Call the sending bank right away and ask about a wire recall. Call the title company on the number you verified, and tell them what happened. Then report the fraud to the FBI through its Internet Crime Complaint Center. Speed matters at every step, so do not wait until the end of the day.

ALTA publishes a Rapid Response Plan for Wire Fraud Incidents for title companies. Ask your title company whether it has one, and whether it knows who to call first. A plan you ask about before a problem is easier to use during one.

Tell clients early and keep a verified contacts sheet

NAR advises agents to educate clients early, hold short security briefings, and tell buyers to confirm wire instructions by calling a known number. Say it at the first offer, and repeat it in the final week before closing. Repetition is what makes the rule stick when someone is rushed.

Keep a simple sheet in Google Sheets. Use columns for the title company, the contact name, the number you verified, the date, and who made the call. Make this sheet the only place you copy numbers from. That one habit makes mismatches easier to spot.

Where Lazur helps, and where it does not

Lazur helps you read, explain, and prepare. Hold ⌥⌘ and ask what looks off on screen. Lazur answers out loud, and it can circle a phone number so you compare it with the one you verified. Hold fn to dictate a call log into any app at the cursor.

Lazur does not verify bank accounts, call the title company for you, or click through your bank's site. It can be wrong about details it cannot see. Treat it as a second pair of eyes. Your callback remains the check.

Ask your title company one question at the start

Ask whether the title company has a written wire procedure. ALTA offers an Outgoing Wire Preparation Checklist to title companies, and you can ask whether they use one. A written process is harder to skip under pressure. If the answer is vague, ask who signs off on a change.

Keep the written rule in your closing folder. If a dispute comes up later, your file shows what you asked, what you verified, and when. That record matters more than memory.