By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

Never discredit your gut instinct. If something deep inside of you indicates something is not right about a person or situation, trust it. Michele Smiley and Simone Clacher, both Escrow Officers at Fidelity National Title of Florida, always do their best to protect the Company from potential claims, regardless of the dollar amount. They read Fraud Insights, they follow Company Policy and have developed a healthy sense of skepticism which proved to be beneficial when they were asked to handle a sale of a vacant lot for $18,000. Read "SPIDEY senses" for the details.

Fraudsters continue to divert money away from real estate transactions. Multiple safeguards and checks and balances help keep the best of us from making a mistake. In the story "ATTENTION to detail," Sandee Dhanowa double checked the account number before processing a payoff to reveal the payoff statement had been altered.

Do you subscribe to a credit monitoring company or identity theft protection service? Diana Hoffman, Fidelity's Corporate Escrow Administrator, does. She was alarmed one morning when she woke up to an email that read, "Information about you may have been exposed on the dark web." Read this month's cyber buzz article entitled "WHAT is the dark web?" for more information.