Click Smart, Stay Safe: Cybercrime Secrets from the DA Recap

Orange County REALTORS® hosted the class Click Smart, Stay Safe: Cybercrime Secrets from Orange County’s District Attorney in honor of Safety Month, on September 26th at OCR’s Fountain Valley office. The informative class included four presentations highlighting the dangers of cybercrime, how to spot red flags, and steps REALTORS® can take to protect themselves and their clients.

District Attorney Todd Spitzer started the class by highlighting the importance of acting quickly, as mere hours can be the difference between retrieving lost money and the funds being gone forever. He also spoke a bit about who are committing cybercrimes these days. Spitzer classified cybercriminals as “incredibly sophisticated,” lacking remorse, and often foreign actors. He went on to talk about cybercrime victims, who are often people that are naturally trusting and are not particularly tech-savvy. Spitzer explained the importance of REALTORS® taking steps to protect themselves from cybercrimes to avoid lawsuits, loss of client trust, and damage to their reputations.

Sr. DDA, Kate Wagner and Sr. DDA, Angela Gunderson walked REALTORS® through the DA’s process of handling real estate fraud. They spoke about common real estate cyber scams and highlighted a few preventative measures that agents can take. They reiterated safeguards such as meeting in person, visiting the property, and paying close attention to who will be making money from the transaction. Gunderson and Wagner also pointed out some red flags that REALTORS® should look out for, such as an unwillingness to meet in person, requests for unusually short escrows, and numbers not adding up. The DDAs reiterated that “Low-tech precautions can beat high-tech fraud attempts,” and highly encouraged agents to take their businesses offline and into the real world as much as possible.

FBI Task Force Investigator Jeremy Johnson showed examples of cybercrime scams, such as illegitimate email addresses and unsafe money transfer instructions. He spoke about tech-based preventative measures REALTORS® can take, such as using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and ensuring all devices are up to date. He explained that “The internet was designed for communication – not security,” which is why it’s so hard to keep information away from the wrong hands once it’s online. Johnson highlighted suspicious things to look out for, such as messages with poor grammar, requests for personal information over email, and suspicious links (he recommends hovering one’s mouse over each link to see where it goes before clicking on it). A main point that Johnson routinely reiterated was the importance of taking one’s time to look out for red flags, rather than rushing through things in an attempt to close a deal quickly.

Supervising Investigator, Eric Tapper spoke about how AI can be used in cybercrime. For example, cybercriminals can create fake identities, copy someone’s voice, and manipulate documents. He also pointed out that most cyberattacks happen over the weekend – particularly long holiday weekends – when the criminals know you can’t speak to the bank or other businesses to resolve the issue. He provided examples of both real and AI generated images to highlight that it can be impossible to tell which is which. Tapper also showed attendees both legitimate and illegitimate email addresses, giving everyone the opportunity to try and spot the differences.

At the end of the class, attendees were given the opportunity to ask questions and share tricks they use in their own businesses to protect themselves from cybercrime.

Visit www.ocrealtors.org/calendar for more classes and events.

View slides from the DA office's presentation here.