What Private Home Sellers Need To Know About Spoofing

The FBI reports that in 2024, phishing and spoofing were the most frequently reported complaints to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). There were over 1 million total complaints, and Americans over 60 reported approximately $7.7 billion in losses.

It's surprising, but these scams can happen when you're trying to sell a house, especially privately. Here's what you need to know about spoofing as a private home seller.

Caller ID spoofing is when someone manipulates the number or name displayed on your phone so that a call appears to come from a legitimate person or organization. This may mean seeing the number of a familiar brokerage, title company, escrow officer, or local area code.

Scammers can make virtually any name or number appear on caller ID, so the information displayed on your screen should never be treated as proof of identity. Before you engage with an unfamiliar caller, you can use reverse phone lookup services as one research tool, then verify the person through an independently sourced number.

A spoofing scheme can become especially convincing when your property is already under contract. A scammer may claim to be an escrow officer, title representative, closing coordinator, or other transaction professional, and they may reference real details about your sale. The caller could ask you to:

• Confirm bank information

• Provide sensitive documents

• Follow new payment instructions

You should treat unexpected changes to financial instructions as a major red flag. Never confirm sensitive information just because the caller knows the property's address or transaction details. Instead, end the call and contact the relevant professional using a phone number you got independently from the company's official website, signed paperwork, or another trusted source.

Another tactic is the scammer pretending to represent a prospective buyer. They may claim that a wealthy client is interested in your property, that an offer is expiring, or that you need to provide information before a viewing can go forward.

The pressure itself is a warning sign. Scammers often try to rush their targets before they have time to verify the story, so you should always independently contact your brokerage using a previously verified number and ask whether the agent works there and is actually representing the buyer.

Open house and listing information can provide scammers with enough context to make automated calls sound highly specific. You may receive a robocall claiming to have an interested buyer, offering marketing services, or requesting that you press a number or call another phone line.

You should be particularly skeptical of recorded messages that create urgency or request personal information. Once again, you should find details independently and initiate the conversation yourself.

The safest response to a suspicious call is to stop the conversation and verify the caller on your own. If someone claims to be a party involved in the sale, such as the brokerage company, then tell them you'll call them back.

You should then find the person's legitimate contact information through a source you already trust rather than use the number displayed on caller ID. You can also maintain written confirmation channels for important requests. This creates a second layer of authentication and makes it harder for a single spoofed call to redirect the transaction.

Verification should be a routine process; you should establish in advance which phone numbers, email addresses, and communication platforms your agent, escrow officer, title company, and attorney will use. Any unexpected request to change those channels should receive additional scrutiny.

Researching unknown numbers can provide another useful clue. But more importantly, never let a caller's urgency override your verification procedure.

Real estate transactions are high-value targets for scammers, so be careful when selling your property. Taking a few extra minutes to independently verify a caller can be far less costly than trusting the wrong person.

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