Hoosier Banker 31 Simply expecting your office to learn and follow the steps in W.I.R.E. (“What I Require Every time”) will provide free protection. The following three steps could save your business: 1. Identify properly. Verify the identity of the recipient with independent information entered early into the file. Fraudsters jump into existing transactions and try to impersonate legitimate parties. 2. Confirm verbally. Telephone the properly identified individual to confirm wire instructions prior to initiating the wire. Use the “properly identified” phone number in step No. 1, not the number provided in an email. Do not trust email, with or without encryption, for wiring instructions. 3. Verify delivery. Telephone the wire recipient to confirm delivery. Use the same properly identified number from step No. 1. This is an extra step, but a valuable one. If these simple steps were followed consistently, the majority of real estate wire fraud would be thwarted. “A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.” - R.H. Williams Real estate is a team sport. We are collectively dependent upon each other to correspond in a safe and secure manner, generally through business email. Each of us must continually communicate with attorneys, title agents, real estate brokers, lenders, buyers, sellers, surveyors … and the list continues. Every one of those contacts is a link in the chain of digital communication. Communicate with them only in person, on the phone or in encrypted email. Demand that security in return. It only takes one person to click on the wrong link for the entire team to be compromised. Visit invtitle.com/fraud for educational materials, videos, warnings and news stories to protect your customers, clients, friends and family from cyber fraud threats – not only in real estate transactions, but in their personal lives. Share this webpage in your email footers, engagement letters, conversations, marketing materials and anywhere else you can. Merely watching a two-minute video on this webpage could keep someone from losing their life savings. Cyber Fraud Insurance It can be hard to recommend that a business add a line item in the expense column, but we must heed the warning to not be penny wise and pound foolish. Regarding cyber fraud losses, when you pay premiums for cyber fraud insurance, you are actually amortizing future and potential losses in advance – and gaining the ability to sleep at night. Now that you have read this article, go back and re-read it, but substitute the word PROTECTION for EDUCATION. It may not totally fit, but it comes close. In the case of cyber fraud, education is protection. “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.” - Jim Rohn HB For the second consecutive year, the staff of the Indiana Bankers Association chose Foster the Need as a holiday giving project. In 2019, the IBA collected more than $1,200 in donations and several bags of infant and childcare goods to donate to the nonprofit organization for distribution to children in need. Foster the Need works with the Indiana Department of Child Services to provide necessities and comfort items to children entering into foster care, since children who are removed from homes due to risk of abuse Foster the Need Holiday Drive giving collected more several goods to or neglect typically are unable to bring possessions to foster homes. The IBA donation provided for more than 60 duffel bags filled with age-appropriate items to be distributed to children entering foster care. The IBA collected donations from visitors and staff via boxes in the IBA lobby during winter months. Foster the Need was created as an IBA Leadership Development Program project in 2018. For more information, visit Foster the Need on Facebook: @fostertheneed. HB
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