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By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

The Company is experiencing a high volume of emails attempting to have funds wire transferred from operating accounts to pay bills and other expenses. Do not fall victim to the crime! Read "MASQUERADING" to discover what the emails look like.

One of our offices just received an exorbitant phone bill! Yes "TOLL fraud" is on the rise and affecting offices who have not yet upgraded their phone systems to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The fraudsters hack the voicemail system and sell the numbers to people calling out of the country, or set up auto dialing to numbers that charge by the minute and they get a percentage of the per minute charge.

The bonded promissory notes from 2009 are back again. Actually, the scam involving these notes never left the market, our Company has not encountered them in recent years because they have been tendered by borrowers to their lenders in order to pay their debt in full. Now they are back being tendered in real estate transactions, most recently in Illinois. Read about it in "IT'S baaaack!"

Each month in 2016 this newsletter will include a story describing solutions to the most common issues relating to 1099–S reporting. This month's article "SUBSTITUTE 1099–S form" illustrates the importance of allowing the seller to complete the solicitation form and reporting their real estate sale to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Be sure to answer the monthly 1099—S question to make certain you understand the tips on properly reporting sales in order to avoid penalties!

 

 
 
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