Republished from FBI instructions November 2, 2017 The number of wire fraud scams reported by title companies to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) spiked 480 percent in 2016, according to a warning issued to businesses by the FBI. If funds are transferred to a fraudulent account, it is important to act quickly: Contact the financial institution … Continue reading What To Do If You’re a Wire Fraud Victim
This is a follow-up to the piece I wrote last summer about the email scam in which the scammer tries to steal from the title company escrow account by posing as a home purchaser whose deal falls through. As a reminder, the scam works like this: The title agent receives what purports to be a … Continue reading Tales from the Table: Part 2, Email Scams
Often, the stories we remember and share with our friends and colleagues are the funny ones, or the ones that defy belief. Those can be fun and entertaining and we can often learn from them. Usually however, they are not things that can potentially alter our businesses or your careers. I received an email the … Continue reading Tales from the Table: Email Scams
The phrase "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door" is commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although really a misquote, it could just as easily be stated as "Build a better mousetrap and someone will build a better mouse." The history of fraud and double dealing is as … Continue reading Gotcha!
As we move through 2016, most title agents will agree that cyber protection has become a necessary evil. It is yet another cost to add to the insurance portfolio that seems to be getting more expensive each year. Unfortunately, the cost for adequate protection may not be going down any time soon. One of the … Continue reading Cyber-Insurance: Your Guide to Buying with Confidence
Although the media headlines often highlight major data breaches of large corporations and government agencies, the majority of businesses being hacked are small businesses. Why is this the case? Most small businesses do not have layers of security in place to protect them so attackers consider them low hanging fruit. According to Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, 61% of data breaches in 2016 occurred in small businesses. As many of you are aware, the title industry is in the attacker’s direct line of fire. The good news is that effective IT security is not beyond reach. Here are a few cybersecurity tips that can benefit your business.
In my job, I have the privilege of speaking with title and settlement agents from across the nation. At some point during our conversations, those agents who have just been certified as compliant with ALTA’s Best Practices will usually voice something similar to the following:
