After contacting your banks, contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to file a formal complaint. Although not guaranteed, the FBI can start a funds recovery process for you using similar mechanisms to track the movement of funds.
That’s why it’s essential to contact all banks involved in your transaction and report the event because they may be able to freeze or recall funds before they are moved or provide vital information about movements recently made. While fraudsters attempt to use a long chain of banks to make it difficult to track down the funds, initiating a SWIFT recall can put a stop to any further movement of the money, if done in time. The SWIFT process, which is used to track and verify money transfers between bank accounts, often has set times and logs that can be used to your advantage. If you are the victim of wire transfer fraud, there are key steps you should take as soon as possible: Initiate a “SWIFT recall“ on the wire transfer. What does wire transfer fraud recovery entail? This last phase often occurs rapidly, as the fraudsters attempt to prevent traceability and funds recovery. After closing, the funds are sent to the criminal’s account before quickly being transferred to other accounts.
Then, they replace the real account information with their own as the parties prepare for closing, and confirmations go to the buyer or seller. Whether it’s a phishing message to collect credentials or an impersonation of a legitimate business email account, these criminals use this access to reroute the data collection and confirmation processes. First, criminals identify parties-typically title companies, real estate attorneys, or real estate agents-and then utilize a method of business email compromise to force themselves into the legitimate wire transfer process.
Although there are some edge cases, most wire transfer fraud follows a pattern.