Sophisticated scammers can hijack real estate transactions using deepfake audio and video to impersonate agents and other parties involved in a home purchase, security experts warn. We’re no longer seeing misspellings. The communications look really good and legitimate, and it’s becoming more difficult to tell what’s fraudulent.
Adams says the best defense is for real estate pros to step up awareness efforts with their clients and tell them to always verify information they receive. “Education early and often is the best strategy right now,” he says. “It needs to be constant. We need to be telling consumers at the beginning that there is a chance that fraud could be interjected at any point in a transaction. Creating more awareness early on in a transaction is so important so that consumers can keep their guard up.”
Face-to-face contact may grow even more critical in a deepfake world. Security experts stress the importance of always verifying sensitive information, relying on a phone number you know to be authentic (not taken from a potentially fraudulent email). Hawkins also stresses the need to always use secure communication channels, encrypted emails and messaging apps rather than relying on free email accounts when communicating with clients or colleagues about sensitive real estate information.
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