Secure your transaction
To safeguard your funds against fraud, Texas Title Assurance employs technology from ClosingLock, which facilitates the secure transmission of wire instructions and other sensitive information. ClosingLock offers an industry-leading secure portal designed for seamless communication of wire instructions.
We want to emphasize that we will never send wire instructions or sensitive information via email. To receive a secure link to ClosingLock, please contact the Texas Title Assurance or the escrow officer managing your real estate transaction.
How It Works
ClosingLock makes closing easy for you and your clients!
ClosingLock simplifies the secure exchange of wire information for your clients, requiring no registration, app downloads, or passwords to remember. With real-time notifications via email, phone, or text, along with integrations with over 12,000 financial institutions through Plaid, your clients can have confidence that their funds are protected.
Both you and your client will receive notifications via text or email once the wire instructions are available.
You and your client can securely access ClosingLock's portal using any device.
Your client can securely download the verified wire instructions or upload their bank information.
Do not trust wire information outside of ClosingLock.
Texas Title Assurance will never reach out to you directly regarding wire instructions. If you or your client receive any correspondence—be it an email, phone call, link, attachment, or letter—that includes wire instructions, please notify Texas Title Assurance immediately.
Closing Lock Instructional Videos
Closing Lock is primarily used to send and receive wiring instructions and secure documents for your upcoming closing. If you have any questions on how to use these, these videos are a great resource to assist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common Questions About Real Estate Wire Fraud
Real estate wire fraud occurs when a criminal provides a property buyer with fraudulent wiring instructions that direct closing funds to the criminal’s bank account rather than the title, settlement, or closing company. This happens in many ways—the email accounts of attorneys, real estate agents, or title company representatives can be hacked or spoofed, or a scammer may call a buyer and pretend to be from the title company.
There are a few reasons why criminals target real estate closings. First, real estate involves large sums of money changing hands, which makes it an ideal opportunity for scammers. These criminals also understand that they can take advantage of the fact that most homebuyers are on edge in the days leading up to the closing and are likely to quickly comply with wiring instructions that seem to come from a legitimate email address to not lose the home they’re buying. Finally, real estate wire fraud occurs because not enough professionals involved in the home buying process have sufficient safeguards in place to protect their clients.
If you are a consumer, the best way to protect yourself from real estate wire fraud is to understand the closing process and verify any requests for funds or personal information with the requesting party before sending them. For example, if your attorney emails you and tells you that funds need to be wired a day in advance, call their office and verify this. You may also ask if your title company uses ClosingLock, which offers the best protection against real estate wire fraud.
Call your bank immediately to see if the funds can be retrieved or recalled, and contact your realtor, attorney, and title company. Change your email password in case your account has been hacked, and call your local police department. The crime should also be reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
It depends. Oftentimes, the consumer bears responsibility for real estate wire fraud because they willingly sent the funds, even if it was under false pretenses. However, court cases have found other parties liable, including real estate agents, brokers, and escrow companies. In the end, it is far better to be proactive about preventing wire fraud from happening than determining who is the responsible party.
Common Questions About ClosingLock
ClosingLock is a service companies use to securely share wire transfer instructions and other documents with their customers (residential or commercial buyers and lenders). ClosingLock is here to combat wire transfer fraud.
ClosingLock is for closing companies (e.g., title companies, attorney offices) and property buyers/lenders. Closing companies select the wire transfer instructions they are trying to share with their customers (buyers and lenders). The buyers and lenders log into ClosingLock using their email address and select their closing company to retrieve the wire transfer instructions. Everyone, including real estate agents, can rest assured knowing buyers and lenders are receiving authentic wire transfer instructions from their closing company.
ClosingLock provides a web-based service to securely communicate wire transfer instructions (and other documents) to buyers and lenders. Most closing companies use emails or phone calls to communicate wire transfer instructions and other documents. Unfortunately, emails and phone calls are easily hacked and spoofed. While those options are great for communicating insecure information, sensitive information, such as wire transfer instructions, should be transmitted securely using our website. Using ClosingLock helps eliminate the threat of phishing attacks on unsuspecting buyers.
Encrypting email is almost as old as email itself, and there are many protocols and implementations. While it is difficult for a hacker to modify an encrypted email, this does not solve the issue of spoofing emails. An encrypted email that is spoofed looks the same as a legitimate encrypted email. Therefore, nothing has been accomplished in trying to prevent fraudulent wire transfer emails. Furthermore, encrypting emails adds overhead to closing companies and buyers/lenders by requiring passwords and encryption keys.
Sure, and most closing companies try to make their customers aware of the dangers of wire fraud via multiple outlets such as warnings, waivers, and email signatures. Unfortunately, the buying experience is overwhelming for many people, and they become victims of wire fraud even though they were warned ahead of time. Over 50% of recent buyers are still unaware of wire fraud in real estate. Regardless of fault, nobody in the process wants to see a buyer or lender lose their payment. ClosingLock prevents the need for you to extensively educate every buyer and lender on the risk of wire fraud.
Why reinvent the wheel? Closing companies are experts at closing real estate transactions, but we are experts at providing secure wire transfer instructions. Let us handle the worry and hassle of server maintenance, hosting, administration, privacy, and security. Proprietary systems cost more, have more bugs, and are less secure than standardized systems like ClosingLock.
Perfect! ClosingLock is built to scale for any size client. We have customers ranging from single companies with one location to many companies spread across many states, each with multiple branches. Our solution is perfect for any size company.
No account or registration is necessary for a buyer or lender! Once the closing company User adds a buyer or lender to the system (outlined above), the buyer or lender simply logs in by entering their email address and choosing their closing company from a dropdown menu. Closing company Users can view if/when a buyer/lender has logged in to view their instructions. This allows closing companies to monitor for any potential delays in closing.
Our site works great on mobile, too, so buyers can access their wire transfer instructions directly from their smart device while at the bank!
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