Not every agent has been trained for this. Here is how to find one who has.
A real estate transaction announces itself to criminals. A large payment is coming, the date is close to public, and the people involved are often distracted. Most agents have never been trained on how any of it works. Some have.
"Most agents have never been taught what wire fraud looks like from the inside. Some have. This page exists to give you what you need to tell the difference."
The schemes an HFDCP™ agent has studied.
These are not hypotheticals. Each one is an active pattern in residential real estate, taught by name in our ADRE-approved course.
Criminals monitor a transaction, then send altered wire instructions timed to the day funds are due. The message is designed to look like it came from escrow, title, or the agent.
A forged or fraudulently induced deed transfers a property away from its owner. Vacant land and out-of-state owners are targeted most often.
Someone who does not own the property lists it for sale, using stolen identity documents and insisting on remote contact throughout.
A call or message that appears to come from a known office. The displayed number and the sending address are both trivially faked.
Payment requests and document links delivered by text, or printed codes that route to a page designed to capture credentials or funds.
Recording makes a sale public. Within days, new owners and sellers begin receiving solicitations and schemes built on that public record.
What a trained agent does that an untrained agent does not.
This is not about how careful someone is. It is about whether there is a system, and whether anyone can show what happened.
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Already under contract and something feels wrong? →What HFDCP™ means, and what it does not.
HFDCP™ stands for Home Fraud Defense Certified Professional. It is earned by completing a three-hour course from Home Fraud Defense covering the fraud schemes that target residential real estate transactions and what a licensee should do when warning signs appear. The course is delivered by an ARELLO/IDECC Certified Distance Education Instructor and is approved for continuing education credit in a growing number of states. Certification renews annually, because the schemes change.
It is a private credential issued by Home Fraud Defense. It is not a state license, does not change what an agent is licensed to do, and is not a promise about the outcome of any transaction. It does not confirm wire instructions, verify closing figures, or refer you to any specific licensee. What it tells you is that this agent chose to be trained on fraud, and has a documented system for telling you about it.
You do not have to know how fraud works. You just have to ask.
The three questions above take ninety seconds. An agent with a system answers all three without hesitating. If yours cannot, that is worth finding out before you sign, not after the money has moved.
Read what to expect once the file closes: the fraud that targets new owners and sellers after recording.
What happens after closingThe client fraud notice, post-closing materials, and monthly alerts are free to any licensed agent. Certification adds the ADRE-approved course, the HFDCP™ designation, and your branded materials.
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