Cybercrime can be devastating to real estate professionals and their clients. The following checklist offers some best practices to help you curb the risk of cybercrime. Because data protection and cybersecurity laws differ across the country, NAR recommends that you work with an attorney licensed in your state to help you develop cybersecurity-related programs, policies, and materials.
I read this article HERE.
A. Email and Password Hygiene
- Never click on unknown attachments or links, as doing so can download malware onto your device.
- Use encrypted email, a transaction management platform, or a document-sharing program to share sensitive information.
- Carefully guard login and access credentials to email and other services used in the transaction.
- Regularly purge your email account, and archive important emails in a secure location.
- Use long, complicated passwords such as phrases or a combination of letters, numbers, symbols.
- Do not use the same password for multiple accounts.
- Consider using a password manager.
- Use two-factor authentication whenever it is available.
- Avoid doing business over public, unsecured Wi-Fi.
B. Other IT-based Security Measures
- Keep antivirus software and firewalls active and up-to-date.
- Keep your operating system and programs patched and up-to-date.
- Regularly back up critical data, applications, and systems, and keep backed up data separate from online systems.
- Don’t download apps without verifying that they are legitimate and won’t install malware or breach privacy.
- Don’t click on links in texts from unknown senders.
- Prior to engaging any outside IT provider, review the applicable privacy policies and contracts with your attorney.
C. Law, Policy, and Insurance Considerations
- In collaboration with your attorney, develop a written disclosure warning clients of the possibility of transaction-related cybercrime. NAR has created a Wire Fraud Email Notice Template that you and your counsel may use and adapt. Stay up-to-date on your state’s laws regarding personally identifiable information, the development and maintenance of cyber and data-related business policies, and other required security-related business practices.
- Develop and implement the following policies:
- Document Retention and Destruction Policy
- Cyber and Data Security Policy
- Breach Response and Breach Notification Policy
- Ensure that your staff and licensees have reviewed and are following all implemented policies.
- Review your current insurance coverage, and ask your insurance agent about cyber insurance and the availability and applicability of products such as social engineering fraud endorsements and computer & electronic crime riders.
Why is cyber security important?
Online Real Estate Fraud Climbed to $275M in 2025, FBI Says
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 12,000 real estate fraud complaints last year.
I read this HERE. By Eliana Block
Cyber criminals stole more than $275 million through real estate-related fraud from at least 12,368 victims last year, according to a new reportpdf from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Those figures are higher than 2024 and 2023—which saw 9,359 complaints totaling more than $173 million in losses and 9,521 complaints totaling about $145 million, respectively—but significantly less than 2022’s peakpdf of 11,727 complaints and a whopping $397 million in losses.
IC3 considers financial loss from a real estate investment or fraud involving rental or timeshare property as “real estate fraud.”
The FBI report outlines how just about anyone, at any age and real estate experience level, can fall victim to these crimes, with persons in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s submitting an equal amount of real estate-related fraud reports last year.
The report, which notes that total cybercrime losses have reached about $20.9 billion, emphasizes how AI is shaping fraud by helping schemers appear more convincing and thwarting victims by becoming harder to detect.
“AI technology enables the creation of convincing synthetic content, such as social media profiles and personalized conversations, often in mass quantities,” the report says. “People have manipulated video and audio similarly for decades, but the widespread availability of this developing technology makes it possible to create high-quality content.”
In July 2025, REALTOR® News covered a growing cryptocurrency scheme known as pig butchering—the practice of scammers gaining trust and gradually encouraging victims to invest more and more money into false accounts by showing fake profits. The U.S. Secret Service said this particular scam resulted in $15 million total in losses for 60 real estate agents.
Agent Awareness and Prevention
The National Association of REALTORS® published a Window the Law video warning real estate professionals about these scams, along with an NAR Cryptoscam Awareness one-sheetpdf that outlines red flags and best practices.
Brokers are encouraged to have a risk-reduction plan in place and regularly offer AI cybersecurity and wire fraud training for agents and staff.
The FBI IC3 report describes a success story where preparation and awareness prevented a fraudulent transaction from being completed. The individuals who were closing on a house received an email impersonating their attorneys and mistakenly sent a large wire transfer to a scammer.
“A wire was submitted at their bank for over $449,000 and was sent to the recipient bank. After the fraud was discovered, the individuals reported the fraud to their bank, and their attorneys made separate attempts to contact the recipient bank with negative results,” the FBI report states.
“Upon receiving the IC3 complaint filed about the incident, the [IC3 Recovery Asset Team] immediately initiated the [Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC)] to request a freeze of the fraudulent account at the recipient bank. The RAT received notification from the recipient bank that the full amount was still in the account and on hold.”
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