Before sending money for a Connecticut home closing, confirm the payment instructions directly with your closing attorney’s office using a telephone number you established independently beforehand. Do not treat an email, a familiar signature or an agent’s forwarded attachment as verification.

As a brokerage leader, I believe buyers should understand that process before they face a payment deadline. Explaining how to protect the transfer is part of good client service—not something to leave in an email footer.

This guide focuses on verifying where your money goes, rather than calculating cash to close. If you have already sent a potentially fraudulent transfer, contact your bank immediately; the response steps appear below.

1. Understand the Connecticut warning without overstating the risk

On January 9, 2017, the Connecticut Department of Banking warned about scammers impersonating a buyer’s attorney and directing mortgage-closing funds to a different account. The department advised consumers to verify changed instructions by calling their established contact directly. That is a historical warning about a specific method, not a measure of Connecticut fraud today. Read the Connecticut Department of Banking alert.

The same basic concern appears in national Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance last reviewed August 28, 2026: fraudulent messages can impersonate real estate agents or settlement professionals to steal down payments or closing costs. The CFPB recommends preparing trusted contact information before closing so instructions can be confirmed directly. See the CFPB’s current consumer guidance.

The important distinction is between knowing the transaction and being authorized to direct the payment. A message that correctly names your property, attorney or closing date still needs independent verification.

2. Build your trusted contact plan before closing week

Start when you engage the attorney handling your purchase, not when the final payment instructions arrive. Establish who in the office is authorized to confirm those instructions, how to reach that person and what to do if they are unavailable.

Record the number through a separate, trusted interaction with the office—not by copying it from the message requesting payment. The CFPB’s archived June 3, 2019 closing-scam guidance recommends confirming account information in person or using a telephone number agreed upon beforehand. It specifically warns against using contact information from a questionable email. Read the CFPB’s detailed verification guidance.

A practical contact sheet should include:

  • The closing attorney’s office: the established number, authorized contact and backup contact.
  • Your sending bank: the independently obtained number for wire-transfer assistance and fraud reporting.
  • Your lender, if financing: the person who can explain the amount you need to provide.
  • Your agent: the person who can help coordinate communication when someone is unavailable.

Keep the sheet accessible without depending on the latest email thread. If a spouse or another authorized person will initiate the transfer, make sure that person understands the verification process too.

Also ask your bank about its transfer process, cutoff times and documentation requirements, and ask your attorney when verified funds must arrive. Those details need to come from the institutions handling your transaction; there is no universal schedule to assume.

3. Verify the destination, not just the appearance of the message

Good spelling and familiar branding are not sufficient safeguards. The FBI explains that business email compromise can involve look-alike addresses or access to legitimate correspondence. Its undated guidance recommends independently verifying payment requests and account changes, using multifactor authentication and being cautious about pressure to act quickly. Review the FBI’s business email compromise guidance.

Use the same verification discipline for the first set of instructions as for a later change. A request does not have to announce an account switch to deserve scrutiny.

  1. Pause before entering payment details. Do not let an email’s urgency become your verification deadline.
  2. Call the previously established number yourself. Do not reply to the message or call a number supplied in that message as your verification step.
  3. Confirm the complete destination. Review the receiving bank, account name, routing number and account number with the authorized person. Resolve any discrepancy before proceeding.
  4. Confirm the amount separately. Reconcile what you are sending with the closing documents and the appropriate closing professional. A correct dollar amount does not authenticate the receiving account.
  5. Review the transfer entry before authorizing it. Compare the details you entered with the instructions you independently verified. After sending, contact the attorney’s office through the trusted channel to confirm receipt.

If anything changes after verification, stop and repeat the relevant checks. Do not assume that a later message overrides the conversation you already had.

The tradeoff is time. A callback may require waiting for an authorized person, especially near a bank’s cutoff. If that creates a timing problem, ask your attorney, lender and agent to address the schedule. Schedule pressure is not a substitute for verification.

4. Rehearse a last-minute account switch

Hypothetical example—not a Nomade transaction: You are buying a condominium in New Haven. Shortly before closing, an email arrives that appears to come from your attorney’s office. It includes the property address and says:

“Please disregard the previous wiring instructions. We have updated our receiving account. Use the attached instructions and send your funds today to avoid delaying closing.”

The message provides a telephone number for confirmation. Your agent is copied, and the email appears within an existing conversation.

The safe response is not to ask everyone on that thread whether the attachment looks right. It is to stop and call the attorney’s office using the number established before this message arrived.

If the authorized contact cannot be reached, keep the transfer on hold and ask your agent to help reach the office. If the office confirms that instructions genuinely changed, verify the complete replacement instructions before proceeding. If it denies sending the message, preserve the communication and alert the transaction team through trusted channels.

This exercise teaches a more useful habit than simply looking for typos: separate the payment request from the method used to authenticate it. The FBI’s warning about compromised correspondence is why even a convincing thread should not end the inquiry.

5. Set a brokerage standard: teach, rehearse and escalate

For Nomade, I propose three concrete service standards. They concern what an agent should explain and coordinate; they are not a claim that a particular security system can guarantee a safe transfer.

Teach the process early

An agent should explain independent verification while the buyer still has time to establish contacts. A useful conversation ends with the buyer knowing whom to call, where the trusted number is stored and what would cause them to pause.

The coaching standard should be practical understanding, not merely whether a warning was delivered. If the buyer cannot explain the next step after receiving changed instructions, the explanation needs more work.

Rehearse the decision

Use a clearly hypothetical message like the example above. Have the buyer identify the contact they would call and the information they would confirm. Include anyone else who will actually initiate the payment.

For agent development, practice responding calmly to a buyer who is worried about missing a deadline. The response should support verification rather than reward speed.

Make escalation clear

An agent can help reach the attorney’s office and coordinate timing with the lender. The agent should not substitute personal reassurance—“I recognize that email”—for independent confirmation of banking details.

Brokerage leadership also means modeling basic account security. The FBI recommends multifactor authentication, but no single safeguard replaces payment verification. The service philosophy is straightforward: help clients reach the right authority, and be clear about the limits of an agent’s role.

6. If a transfer may be fraudulent, act immediately

If you discover a possible problem after sending money, do not wait for the next business meeting or try to resolve everything through the suspicious email thread. The FBI directs victims to contact their financial institution immediately, ask it to contact the receiving institution and report the incident to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3. See the FBI’s response instructions.

  1. Call your sending bank immediately. State that you suspect wire fraud and request urgent assistance. The CFPB also recommends requesting a wire recall.
  2. Ask the bank to contact the receiving institution. Have the transfer date, amount, reference number and receiving-account information available.
  3. Notify your closing attorney through the trusted number. Alert your agent and lender, if applicable, so the transaction team can address the closing schedule and related communications.
  4. Report the incident to IC3 and preserve the evidence. Keep the original messages, attachments, instructions and transfer records. Follow your bank’s and attorney’s directions about providing them.

The wire-recall recommendation appears in the CFPB’s archived June 3, 2019 guidance. A recall request is a response step, not a promise that money will be recovered.

Do not delay the bank call while assembling a perfect record. If someone pressures you to send a replacement payment immediately, pause and work with your bank and attorney before moving additional money.

Frequently asked questions

A familiar email address still needs verification

A recognizable sender is not enough. The FBI notes that criminals can gain access to legitimate correspondence. Confirm payment instructions outside the email using your established contact information.

A bank check may be an option, but confirm first

Ask your closing attorney which payment methods are accepted for your transaction, and confirm the payee, delivery requirements and timing. Do not assume a personal check or cashier’s check will be accepted, or switch methods without coordination.

Your agent can assist without approving the account

An agent can help you reach the appropriate closing professional. Having an agent forward instructions or recognize a sender should not replace your independent verification before authorizing the transfer.

A verified transfer amount does not verify its destination

Knowing your cash-to-close amount answers how much to send. It does not establish where the money belongs. Treat the amount and the receiving-account instructions as separate items to confirm.

Sources

A buyer who pauses to verify is taking the process seriously. Talk with Nomade about planning your Connecticut purchase and coordinating your closing team.