Thieves are no longer limited to the streets of the city. As of currently, they also roam around the cyberworld and targeting people who transfer money online on a regular basis.
A report says that Nichole Dukas, Fort Myers-based company VP, once received a strange email from one realtor she works with. She was given instructions as to where to send $90K in seller's proceeds. However, the email told her to send the money somewhere else. Since the email had a strange tone in it, Dukas did not respond to the sender, instead she made a call. And acording to the said sender, he never sent that email.
Had Dukas failed to take precautions, she could have lost $90k to anonymous people. According to the report, hackers will monitor email conversations for a period of time before they send people their fake email. The hackers are capable of intercepting sensitive emails between realtors, clients, and title agencies and they take advantage of the information they get to try and redirect people's money transfer.
According to Dukas, if you are careless, if you lack experience, and if you are pre occupied, you can be a victim of such scam. This is why it is very important to recognize any strange emails you get from familiar senders. Taking precautions is very crucial especially if a large amount of money is involved.
It was said that all kinds of businesses are prone to being victims of these cyber crimes. In fact, an estimated 7000 companies have lost more than $700 million in these cyber-executed scams. Real estate professionals are strong targets of these hackers because of the large amount of money that they send out on a regular basis. This is why authorities instruct every business owner to not neglect verbal confirmations before sending out any amount of money. Using additional computer security systems is also recommended.
