Attention
Fraud alert: protect your property and your money
Two scams are hitting our area — fraudulent property sales and wire fraud. Both are preventable. Here's how.
For your protection: never wire funds without calling us first
Do not wire funds without calling us at (352) 723-3001 to verify the instructions — even if the email looks like it came from us, your agent, or your lender. Criminals imitate closing emails and swap the account numbers, and wired money is nearly impossible to recover.
We will require all cash to close be tendered in the form of a wire transfer — verified by phone, every time.
Already sent money to a suspicious account? Call your bank immediately to request a recall, then report it to the FBI at ic3.gov — the faster it's reported, the better the odds of freezing the funds.
How the wire scam actually works
- 1
They lurk
Criminals compromise an email account somewhere in the transaction — often weeks early — and quietly read everything, learning names, dates, and amounts.
- 2
They imitate
Days before closing, you get an email that looks exactly like your title company or agent — same logo, same thread — with "updated" wire instructions.
- 3
The money vanishes
Funds wired to the fake account are moved offshore within hours. Recovery is rare. Life savings, gone in an afternoon.
- ✓
The 30-second defense
Call us at the number you already know — (352) 723-3001 — and verify before wiring. We never change wire instructions by email. Ever.
Watch your property title — free county alerts
There have been a number of fraudulent property sales in our area, and it's important for all property owners to be diligent. You can Google your address to see if it has been fraudulently placed for sale — and better yet, register with your County Clerk to be notified automatically of any sale or recording activity on your property:
Not sure a request is legitimate?
Call us before you act. Thirty seconds on the phone beats losing a life's savings to a fake email.