YORK COUNTY, S.C. — Shelby Moran and her husband say they were just trying to downsize when a scammer posing as their lawyer tricked them out of nearly $70,000.
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The York County couple say they sold their house and were about to close on a new one when they got an email that looked like it was from the closing attorney.
But it wasn’t.
It’s called the “business email compromise” scam. Scammers usually target realtors and closing attorneys and hack or phish their way into their email accounts, mimic those accounts, and email the clients about the transaction. They’re usually pretty convincing. After all, they know all the details of the deal.
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“It was down to the exact penny and the date of the closing. Everything,” Moran told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke.
Then the scammers tell the clients where to send their money, which you probably guessed, is to the scammers. Moran says she did exactly that and sent them $67,400.
“I feel devastated. Seriously. That was what we had made off of our other home to close on a new home,” she said.
Now she realizes what was off about the scam email. “The only thing that was different was a couple of digits in the phone number had changed and, then, of course, their email address,” she said. But that’s all it took.
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Here’s the easiest way to combat this scam:
- Hover your cursor over the email address to see where it’s really coming from.
- If the email says you need to send money -- especially to a different account than you were initially told -- call to make sure. Sure, it sounds obvious, but all the victims Action 9 has spoken with over the years said they wish they had done that one simple thing.
Stoogenke also exchanged emails with the law firm the scammer pretended to be with. It pointed out it has a disclaimer, warning clients about this con. It also offered the same advice: always call to confirm emails before transferring money.
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