After a near-miss with a six-figure wire-fraud attempt, this St. Petersburg real estate agency invested in comprehensive cybersecurity - and discovered just how many threats they were facing.
Based on a real EasyWayIT client engagement; client details anonymized.
It started with an email that looked perfectly legitimate. The transaction coordinator at this busy St. Petersburg real estate agency received what appeared to be updated wire instructions from a title company they'd worked with dozens of times. The email had the correct logo, similar formatting, and referenced the actual closing that was scheduled for the next day.
A six-figure sum in buyer funds was about to be wired to criminals.
By pure luck, the title company called to confirm an unrelated detail about the closing. In that conversation, the discrepancy was discovered - the title company hadn't sent any wire instruction changes. The email was a sophisticated Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack.
The agency came within moments of sending a six-figure wire transfer to criminals. Had the confirming phone call come a few minutes later, the buyer's funds, the agency's reputation, and potentially the business itself would have been at risk.
The agency's broker-owner realized they had no real security beyond basic antivirus. No email filtering. No multi-factor authentication. No monitoring. They were completely exposed.
Real estate is one of the most targeted industries for wire fraud. With large transactions happening daily via email, and multiple parties involved in every deal, criminals see it as an easy target. The FBI reports over $2.4 billion lost to real estate wire fraud in 2022 alone.
Within 48 hours of the near-miss, EasyWayIT implemented a comprehensive security stack designed specifically for high-risk industries like real estate.
Beyond technology, we helped the agency implement a mandatory verification protocol for all wire transfers:
Malicious emails, phishing attempts, and attacks are filtered and blocked on an ongoing basis
No known successful breaches since implementation
Round-the-clock protection by trained security analysts
Cyber insurance premium reduced thanks to an improved security posture
What the security stack catches on an ongoing basis:
The threats fall into several categories, with phishing emails making up the largest share, followed by spam and malware, then BEC and credential-harvesting attempts. The bars below are illustrative of the relative mix, not exact measured volumes:
Within the first month, dark web monitoring discovered several agent email addresses with compromised passwords circulating on criminal marketplaces - likely from previous third-party breaches. These passwords were immediately reset, and affected agents received additional security training.
Without this monitoring, those credentials could have been used to access the agency's email system and launch internal attacks.
For the agency, seeing the monthly report of blocked threats was eye-opening - they had no idea they were under such constant attack, and before EasyWayIT those messages would have landed directly in their inboxes. With real protection in place, and a lower cyber-insurance premium reflecting their improved security posture, the leadership team gained confidence that the business was well defended.
You don't know what you're not seeing. A steady stream of threats was getting through unnoticed until proper security was in place. Basic antivirus catches almost none of this.
Real estate is a high-value target. Large wire transfers and email-based transactions make real estate agencies prime targets for cybercriminals.
Security is an investment, not a cost. Insurance savings alone can offset a significant portion of security expenses.
Process matters as much as technology. The wire verification protocol has stopped multiple real attack attempts since implementation.
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