The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance issued an official warning to New Jersey specifically to banks, mortgage lenders, real estate agent license holders, title agencies and closers, to be aware of the “prevalence of fraudulent schemes to divert funds transferred by wire. 
The alert is the first to mark the new threat level that hacking represents to the industry. Though this is not new to those professionals involved with in the sector, the activity is spiking.
The trend has garnered the attention of not only the Federal Trade Commission but also the National Association of Realtors and the American Land Title Association.
Even the Federal Trade Commission has issued warnings to individuals purchasing homes that there would be potential hackers posing as real estate agents possibly or even title insurance companies that would attempt to steal the consumers closing costs.
According to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance stated acting commissioner Marlene Caride,
“There are many versions of wire fraud that pose financial threats to firms conducting mortgage loan transactions, as well as the consumers and small businesses they serve,”
The New Jersey agency presented a number of precautions that could be taken in order to make wire transfers less vulnerable to hackers in the future. These actions included closely verifying email addresses, avoiding web-based email following strict business protocol for confirming the validity of wire transfer instructions changes, companies verifying procedures from third-party service providers, (particularly from closing agents) and the ability to identify and spot suspicious variations in wire transfer activity.
“There are many versions of wire fraud that pose financial threats to firms conducting mortgage loan transactions, as well as the consumers and small businesses they serve,” said Acting Commissioner Caride. “They all share one unfortunate result: the funds diverted through these criminal acts are nearly impossible to recover. The purpose of today’s bulletin is to remind those New Jersey firms involved in wire transfers to take every step necessary to protect small business owners, consumers and themselves against this constantly evolving fraudulent threat.These industries handle millions of dollars in wire transfers every day in connection with mortgage loans and taking precautions to safeguard these transactions should be a high priority.”
Wire transfer scams generally involve several types of business email compromise (BEC) techniques that alter normal wiring instructions to divert funds from the intended recipient to a stranger. Fraudsters may use social engineering or computer intrusion techniques, such as malware and phishing. Perpetrators will target weakly guarded transactions with sophisticated hacking mechanisms. For example, a common scheme involves a buyer receiving an email from an address nearly identical to the closing agent’s that includes a plausible subject line that advises of a “wiring change.” When the buyer complies, the funds are wired to a scammer who is typically overseas and extremely difficult to track.
To make your company and your important transactions “harder targets,” consider the following precautions:
• Closely verify email addresses before using them. Scammers mimic legitimate addresses and subject lines, but they are not 100% identical.
• Avoid web-based email.
• Strictly follow your specific business procedures for confirming the validity of changes made to wire transfer instructions.
• Use a confirmation process, which may include verbal communication via a mutually agreed telephone number between the known parties, as well as mutually agreed code words designed to combat phone “porting.”
• Get to know the fraud resistance capacity of your third-party service providers, especially closing agents; become sufficiently aware of the relevant parties’ normal wire transfer activity to recognize suspicious variations.
Link to the publication
http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/bulletins/blt18_04.pdf