A Record Number of Cyber Attack Complaints Were Received in 2020, What Is the Solution for Real Estate Agents in 2021?
NAR is announcing that REALTOR® associations and MLSs are at risk. They can be the victims of phishing by fraudsters. Real estate professionals can lose thousands of dollars, damage their reputation and endanger their clients.
To avoid all the above mentioned events, read the article and see what phishing is, how it works and what the solution is.
What Is Phishing?
Phishing is a common form of internet fraud. It can happen through email, phone calls and text messages. Usually, the phishers include an unclear but stressful problem, such as an account expired or additional features needed to complete a transaction. After getting to the problem, the message will provide a solution by asking you for personal information, such as your bank routing and account numbers or credit card account information.
How Does Phishing work?
Fear, stress and the element of sensitivity are the key factors to this process. The phishers manipulate the feelings of their victims and they act impulsively without double-checking.
Real estate phishers gain access to recent transactions of a real estate company.
Then they use this information to contact people from the customer list and try to get victims to send money. In order to seem more authentic, they attach a fraudulent invoice to an email.
What Is the Solution?
Nobody can be sure that they won’t be attacked by scammers. But if it happens, you should know what to do. Effective Cybersecurity Strategy for Real Estate Agents — in this article you will learn more about the strategies that can be used against cyber attackers.
First of all, whatever happens, try to stay calm, and don’t give anyone a chance to manipulate you. As I mentioned before, scammers maneuver on your sensitivity and try to get more information from you.
One should always use strong passwords and never repeat the same credentials on different sites. Changing passwords regularly and making them complex can avoid serious damage to your business.
Keeping your software updated can also help you keep away from cyber attacks.
I believe the most important thing that you can do for your security is to stay educated and up-to-date all the time. Knowing what is happening around you and how you can stay away from this cyber problem can greatly reduce your chances of becoming the victim of phishers.
Conclusion
To sum up, phishing is still one of the most important problems for real estate professionals. By knowing what to do when something goes wrong or something suspicious happens, you can be the one who won’t be injured by fraudsters.
Get to know more about cyber security by reading this article: Cybersecurity Guidelines for Real Estate Agents
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.