Fraud, much of it involving social engineering, is common in the mortgage process according to a survey of almost 50,000 mortgage settlement agents.
20% said over the last year they’d been victims of wire fraud or attempted cyber fraud to intercept bank proceeds and 31% said they’d seen fraud in someone else’s transaction.
“These survey results reflect the significant dangers lurking in the mortgage industry with respect to the privacy of financial communications, the exposure of electronic funds transfers to potential man-in-the-middle hacking efforts, and the risk to lenders of losing all or a portion of their proceeds during the closing of a residential mortgage transaction,” said Secure Insight CEO Andrew Liput.
These numbers highlight the growing exposure enterprises face from partners and vendors that may experience hacks but do not have adequate insurance. In this case, it appears settlement agents are moving in the right direction, but banks are behind in mitigating risk to their transaction chains.
See the survey from Secure Insight, a nationwide wire fraud and mortgage closing fraud risk management prevention company.