Sophisticated Scammers Target Homebuyers
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CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues has the story of how one couple almost lost thousands.
WASHINGTON (CBS) – Mike Malone, who owns a construction company in upstate New York, was ready to buy a vacation condominium in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Last month, he received an email from someone he thought was his broker, instructing him to transfer almost $500,000 to an account at Bank of America.
"My wife went to the bank that day, completed the wire transfer and called me and said, 'The wire transfer is done, you might want to call and check on that,'" Malone said.
But when his broker told him she had never sent an email, he realized his vacation home deal had somehow been targeted by sophisticated scammers. The email he received was different from his broker's real email by just one letter. The "y" was missing from the company's name, and the money his wife sent had actually gone to a bank account set up by scammers.
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