Couple shares warning after nearly losing down payment in mortgage fraud
A Southern California couple is sharing a warning to other potential homebuyers after they said they fell victim to a mortgage fraud scheme that nearly cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The couple, who asked ABC News to identify them only by their first names, Lynette and Scott, said the incident occurred when they were going to submit a down payment on a home.
They said they had been corresponding via email with their mortgage broker, when they received what looked like a message from the broker that contained a misspelled word in the sender's email address.
"It was an exact duplicate of any correspondence that we've had with the company before," Scott recalled, speaking with ABC News' Aaron Katersky. "It was identical, but for one keystroke."
Instead of "escrow.com," Lynette said the email came from an address that used two V's in place of a W.
"So, instead of 'escrow.com,' it was 'escrovv.com,'" Lynette said.
After they sent the money, Scott and Lynette followed up with their broker, who told them they hadn't received anything.
"The reality just slowly sets in, like, this could not possibly have happened to us," Lynette said.
Scott added, "We consider ourselves technologically literate, but we knew at that moment that we were over our head. We literally stopped and we prayed, and then we called the police."
Orange County has one of Southern California's only cyber crimes investigative units. Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes told ABC News speed is essential in cyber fraud cases like Scott and Lynette's case.
"The quicker you recognize it and then take immediate action is key. The likelihood of recovering that money is almost zero after about 72 hours," Barnes said.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, there are a variety of cyber fraud crimes involving home financing, including business email compromise, or BEC, the type Lynette and Scott fell victim to, where criminals spoof or use compromised email accounts of financial institutions, businesses, nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, or governmental entities to get victims to send money or share sensitive information.
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Office said they were able to trace where Scott and Lynette's money went, and the couple said after several months, they ultimately recovered about 90% of their funds.
"There was about 10% of the money that apparently had gotten translated into Bitcoin, and that was gone-gone. But close to 90% of our funds came back to us. It was like a dream," said Scott.
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers recommends customers take precautions to avoid potential frauds by calling sources and double-checking any information or requests.
"Before you send anything, pick up the phone. Call your mortgage broker, call your realtor, trust and verify," National Association of Mortgage Brokers President Kimber White told ABC News.
