Season 4, Episode 1

We kicked off the new season of Title Nerds with a deep-dive into wire fraud with our special guests John Gavigan, CEO of WireVault, which provides wire fraud prevention software, and Kinny Chan, Chief Commercial Officer of Trust Stamp, an identity verification company.  Co-hosts Mike O’Donnell and Bethany Abele discussed with John and Kinny the growing experience of lawyers and real estate professionals who are fending off fraudsters trying to intercept bank instructions and redirect payments to themselves. John and Kinny shared some of the common scenarios that cyber criminals exploit, such as taking advantage of bank instructions being shared using outdated and insecure methods including email, texts, PDF forms, and unverified phone verifications, and being saved in vulnerable locations such as email folders, Excel files, and outdated software systems. They discussed how cyber criminals exploit these workflows and technologies through phishing, social engineering, email spoofing, and advanced AI tools, making traditional verification methods unsafe. Next Bethany and Mike interviewed Riker Danzig Commercial Litigation Partner Jorge Sanchez and Counsel Ron Ahrens about both preventing wire fraud and recovering fraudulently transferred funds, with tips about verifying information, calling a known number, recognizing information that looks “off,” not assuming someone else has verified the information, and being suspect of last-minute change requests.  They cautioned to verify receipt of funds immediately after sending so you can address promptly if there has been fraud. They advised not to rely only on law enforcement but to engage an attorney to shepherd you through the process if you suspect that you have been a victim of wire fraud. The podcast concluded with a roundtable discussion among all the speakers sharing additional tips Key Takeaways From This Episode How do you ensure that you’re dealing with the intended recipient of funds? How do you confirm that the banking instructions haven’t been altered? It is crucial to employ additional factors of identity verification. No technology is 100% infallible, but the point is to increase the guardrails to prevent criminals from exploiting the technology. Note:  Riker Danzig is not endorsing the services of WireVault or Trust Stamp.