The Federal Bureau of Investigation's business email compromise guidance says to verify a change in account information through a secondary channel. The same test works for anything the other side says about itself. The channel has to be one the other side did not supply: a registry the buyer searched, a regulator's lookup, a phone number from an official site, a letter to an address on the public record. Every registry and lookup named here is a United States one, and nothing on the page is legal advice.
A closing wire in Missouri
In March 2025 the Bureau's Recovery Asset Team received a complaint about a Missouri senior citizen who was closing on a property. Page 23 of the Internet Crime Complaint Center's 2025 annual report describes the email at the center of it: it appeared to come from the title company and carried wire instructions for more than $1.3 million to a fraudulent account. The team asked banks to freeze the receiving account, confirmed that funds in it were frozen, and found wires from other victims in the same account.
The two-channel rule
A phone number the seller supplies reaches the seller or a partner. An email with new payment details and a number to call reaches whoever sent the email. Two questions test any phone number, address or link:
- Was the contact found independently, from a source the other side cannot edit?
- Would the check still work if the other side were lying about everything else?
A person who says they own property
The owner of record, and the certified letter that reaches that owner at the tax-bill address, are covered step by step in how seller impersonation fraud works on vacant land. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's June 2026 alert on parcel owner impersonation recommends that letter to buyers.
A company
The National Association of Secretaries of State links each state's business registration pages and corporate name databases, and says most of its member offices handle company registration. A search on the exact legal name in the contract gives the formation date, the registered agent and the agent's address.
An invented case: a seller describes the family company as thirty years old, and the registry shows it formed eight months before the offer arrived. The gap goes on the checklist's formation-date line before anyone signs.
Delaware's search page says its results include inactive entities and are "not an indication of the current status" of an entity (Delaware Division of Corporations). Its free listing shows the entity name, file number, formation date and registered agent, with no owners or managers, and it sells a certificate of status separately.
Authority to sign comes from the company's own papers: an operating agreement, or a signed resolution naming who may sell. The person at the signing table has to be the person those papers name. Good standing is a separate question. A certificate of good standing answers it, and only for the date printed on it.
The money
A proof of funds letter or a screenshot of a balance is a claim until the bank behind it confirms it. Getting that confirmation takes three steps:
- Confirm the bank exists and is insured in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's BankFind Suite. For a credit union, use the National Credit Union Administration's credit union locator.
- Call the bank at a number from its own website or from that listing, never the number printed on the letter.
- Ask the buyer to authorize the bank to confirm the funds, and ask the bank whether it issued the letter.
The Federal Trade Commission's guide to fake check scams explains that banks must by law make deposited funds available quickly, while a fake check can take weeks to be discovered. By then the person who deposited it owes the bank whatever was paid out against it. Fake checks can look like cashier's checks or money orders. The commission's advice is to rely on money from a check only when the person behind it is known and trusted.
The professionals
Each professional on a land deal holds a license or commission from a state office:
- Title agents and title insurers: the state insurance department, which the National Association of Insurance Commissioners lists for every state in its directory of insurance departments.
- Attorneys: the licensing agency of the state, which the American Bar Association lists state by state on its lawyer licensing page, and which can say whether a person holds a law license there.
- Real estate agents and brokers: the state real estate commission's license search.
- Notaries: the state office that issued the commission.
A license record shows that the firm or the person exists. To learn whether the person sending emails about the deal works there and handles the file, the buyer calls the firm at the number on its license record or its own website.
Payment details
The Missouri wire instructions arrived in one email. An emailed payment instruction, or an emailed change to one, stays unconfirmed until a phone call to a number from the firm's own website or license record confirms it. The closing-day callback routine that goes with a wire is on Dealbender's page on verifying wire instructions before a closing.
When the other side pushes back
The planned checks go to the seller in writing when the deal opens, so a real seller knows what is coming before any deadline. When one stalls, the buyer sets a date and the deal waits. The federal alert on parcel owner impersonation lists pressure to close quickly among its warning signs, so a seller's reason for skipping a check goes on the record of checks with the day it was given.
The record of checks
The counterparty verification checklist has a line for each of these checks, with room for where, when, with whom and what turned up. Title insurance and an attorney's review are separate steps.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, "Business Email Compromise," undated page. ic3.gov
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, "2025 IC3 Annual Report," page 23. ic3.gov
- National Association of Secretaries of State, "Corporate Registration." nass.org
- Delaware Division of Corporations, "Entity Search." icis.corp.delaware.gov
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, "BankFind Suite," described on the FDIC's Data Tools page. banks.data.fdic.gov
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners, "Insurance Departments." content.naic.org
- Federal Trade Commission, "How To Spot, Avoid, and Report Fake Check Scams," June 2025. consumer.ftc.gov
- American Bar Association, "Lawyer Licensing." americanbar.org