Clay Johnson: Hey guys, Clay Johnson here with Castle & Cooke Mortgage with Cheryl Knowlton, the guru. And we’re here to talk about data security once again. And I know that over the years, Cheryl, we’ve been doing this a long time, some crazy experiences.you had one specifically that was kind of shocking.
Cheryl Knowlton: Absolutely. So recently I had the opportunity to go to recertification for one of the designation courses I teach. It was with a lot of other national instructors. It scared the ever-living heck out of every instructor and every broker in the room. We found out that the very first lawsuit has been filed against a real estate agent and broker for wire fraud. They represented the client. Obviously, they were not involved in perpetrating the fraud. These were good people, hardworking broker, hardworking agent. But the agent, some months prior, had had their email compromised. And some naughty little person, probably in another country, was lurking and watching and waiting for transaction information to cross their email.
They hijacked their personal emails, sent false wiring instructions to the buyer. The buyer lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And as a result, the buyer is actually suing their agent that represented them in the transaction and the broker–A nightmare for every broker out there.
Clay Johnson: And it breaks your heart for the people that were victims of that too.
Cheryl Knowlton: Horrible, absolutely horrible. So take every precaution that you possibly can, put protocols in place to make certain that you educate your buyers at the very beginning of the transaction to never wire funds to anywhere except where the title company tells them to wire. And follow those protocols to the letter.
Clay Johnson: I couldn’t agree more. Again, avoid those things. It can be a scary process out there. But see you, next time guys, for episode five.
Cheryl Knowlton: If we haven’t scared you enough.