Buying a Home in Pennsylvania? Protect Your Closing Funds from Wire Fraud
Before sending money for a Pennsylvania home closing, verify the payment instructions through a trusted contact using a telephone number you obtained independently. A familiar name, accurate property details, or an existing email conversation is not enough to establish that a request is genuine.
Closing wire fraud is not limited to Pennsylvania. Federal consumer-protection and law-enforcement guidance offers practical steps that buyers in Pike County and elsewhere can use when preparing to transfer funds.
How a closing scam can happen
A criminal may impersonate a real estate professional or settlement company and send instructions directing the buyer’s funds to a different account. A message might arrive shortly before closing, claim that payment details have changed, and demand immediate action. Compromised email accounts can make fraudulent requests look especially convincing.
Before closing: establish a verification plan
Identify trusted contacts at the settlement company and among your transaction professionals early in the process.
Save their telephone numbers from an independently verified source, rather than from a last-minute payment email.
Ask how payment instructions will be delivered and how you should confirm them.
Discuss transfer timing and bank requirements in advance so urgency does not replace verification.
Before sending a wire: stop and confirm
Call your trusted settlement contact using the saved number and verify the payment details, including the intended recipient and account information. Treat any change in account number or payment procedure as a reason to verify again. Do not use the telephone number supplied in a suspicious message to validate that same message.
A request to keep the transfer secret, bypass the usual contact, or act immediately is a warning sign. Avoid opening unexpected attachments or following unfamiliar links. Ask your transaction professionals about their secure method for exchanging sensitive documents instead of replying with financial information.
If money may have gone to the wrong account
Contact your bank or wire-transfer provider immediately. Explain that you suspect fraud and ask whether the transfer can be stopped or recalled. The FBI also advises asking your financial institution to contact the institution that received the funds.
Report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Alert your legitimate settlement contact and attorney through verified channels, and preserve the messages and transfer records. Recovery is not guaranteed; do not wait until the scheduled closing to raise the problem.
Make verification part of your closing checklist
For the broader transaction process, read what happens at a Pennsylvania real estate closing. If you have questions about your transaction, contact Jacobs, Wilson & Onofry.
Sources: CFPB: Buying a home? Beware of mortgage closing scams; FBI: Business Email Compromise.
Sources checked October 7, 2026. This article provides general information, not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. Individual circumstances can change the appropriate response.