Chad Ramberg, who sells insurance to financial advisors, called it the “craziest claim” he worked on last year.
An advisor Ramberg works with met with a client in the advisor’s office. The client told the advisor he had just purchased a house and needed help sending $300,000 to the real estate escrow company. The advisor made the arrangements to transfer the funds from the client’s custodial account, then called to ensure the payment was received.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was the answer from the holder of the escrow account.
The client had fallen prey to a sophisticated social engineering scam. The fraudster had hacked into the client’s email account and monitored it for notifications of any large transactions. When the real escrow company sent the request for funds, the fraudster deleted the legitimate email and replaced it, inserting a fraudulent account number to receive the transfer.
The advisor notified the custodian and stopped the transfer.
A social engineering scam against a financial advisor and their client is a prime…
