CLE ELUM, Wash. — Scammers nearly stole over $700,000 from a Cle Elum-area resident in a targeted wire fraud scheme, deputies say.
According to the Kittitas County Sheriff‘s Office, the man received an email that appeared to be from his title company and contained instructions for how to wire a large payment.
Deputies say he was trying to complete a legitimate real estate purchase, followed the directions, and sent the money.
Thankfully, he followed up with a phone call to his title company, who informed him the email address he’d been working with—which used the name of the company but came from an “@gmail.com” address—was being run by scammers.
Deputies say that luckily, he was able to contact his bank in time to stop the payment, which would have likely gone overseas and been unrecoverable.
Detectives believe the title company may have been breached by a phishing email scam. By luring an innocent employee to click a malicious link, scammers may have accessed information used to carry out their fraud.
The company has reportedly identified other customers whose information may have been compromised and is in contact with those people.
Here are some tips for whenever you transfer funds:
- Verify by calling published numbers
- Be wary of email-only instructions
- Treat urgency as a red flag
If you are a Cle Elum-area resident and have questions about a pending transaction, or if you believe you might be a victim of fraud, call the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office at 509-962-7525.
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