HERMISTON — One woman’s retirement dream turned into a nightmare this month when she lost her life savings and her home to wire fraud.

Karen Cranford has been in Hermiston nearly 40 years, raising two sons and working as an emergency dispatcher for both Umatilla County and the city of Hermiston. Her retirement plan was to sell her older house, in need of much repair, and buy a bigger one that could accommodate visiting family. With three great-grandchildren close by, she expected her new house to be a hub of activity.

Cranford’s daughter-in-law, Jennifer Dorsey, said Cranford’s dream was dashed the day before she was to close on the sale of her new home when she discovered the downpayment she wired to the title company in fact disappeared into a fraudulent account.

Dorsey said Cranford got an email two days before she was to close on the new house. The email, allegedly from the title company, instructed Cranford to wire the downpayment and closing costs to a bank account included in the message and not to call her contact at the title company — he would be too busy to talk to her by phone, she was to communicate only by email.

“The email from the title company looked authentic. It had the company’s logo and the name of the employee she had been talking to, and a correct signature line, but on second glance my husband and I could tell it was a scam,” Dorsey said.

The red flag was that the email came from a Gmail account, not the title company’s account, nor was the title company employee’s name part of the email address. These details weren’t noticed right away because the hacker did know the title contact’s name and the exact amount of the down payment.

The police were contacted as well as the FBI, but in cases like these the money is typically wired to a U.S. account and then to an overseas bank and is gone.

With no down payment and no home, Cranford will have to move to Olympia, Washington, to live with Dorsey and her husband. They now have to find a bigger home to accommodate Cranford and her three dogs. Dorsey wants her family’s story to be a cautionary tale.

“They ruined her life and now all of our lives are upside down,” Dorsey said. “If we make one person stop and question something, hopefully it wasn’t all for nought.”

Greg Galloway of Stearns Home Loans said Cranford’s story is a textbook case of real estate wire fraud.

“There has been a significant increase as we have moved into a more digital environment — documents are shared via email or other electronic uses,” he said. “If you can break into it, the information can be used in an illegal way.”

Title companies in small communities are often targeted because they don’t have data security or encryption and are easier to access.

“It’s easier to break into a small office than a large corporation,” Galloway said.

To ward off attacks, Galloway said Stearns has moved to a secured, digital portal or encrypted website instead of using email with clients. When email is used, an extra step is necessary, like entering a password.

Spying on realtors is often how hackers gain the information they need to attack the home buyer, Jason Jacobson, senior vice president and chief information officer of AmeriTitle, said.

“They copy the signature line and paste it into a new Gmail account to try and spoof the buyer or seller that the email is coming from the title company in order to divert wire funds,” he said.

Jacobson said he does a lot of education of his company’s realtor customers on wire fraud because they are now the primary target compared to 10 years ago when banks and title companies were the targets.

“More financial institutions are investing money into securing their environment,” he said.

Often the hackers get information from the client through an email offering a free gift card. The receiver clicks the link for the card and a screen pops up that looks like a Google login. Once a password is entered, the hacker can access an email account and spy on conversations and pick up on closing dates and downpayment amounts.

Jacobson said hackers are usually from Nigeria or the United Arab Emirates. He said two months ago, his company hacked a hacker after 23 days embedded with the FBI.

“We got access to their Gmail account to see how they operated. This group had over 30 attacks that were ongoing,” he said.

To help clients avoid fraud, Jacobson said AmeriTitle provides information upfront, letting customers know agents never email changes in wiring instructions. He said two-factor authentication is also used, like having a one-time password texted to the client to access the account.

As for the realtors, Jef Farley, owner/principal broker at Coldwell Banker Whitney and Associates in Pendleton, said his company is tightening up its email security and warning clients of wire fraud.

“Microsoft hosts our email addresses and is the most secure and advanced in protecting emails, but that’s not enough, he said. “We need to continually counsel our clients to really pay attention to emails that look suspicious and to verify directly with the person over the phone at the title company or brokerage.”

Insurance companies are getting in the game, too, with wire fraud on the rise and are checking the policies of their real estate clients to see how much cyber security coverage they have, Farley said.

“Real estate companies need to be looking at their cyber coverage because it could be inadequate,” he said.

Farley recommended realtors get an additional rider on their policies to cover cyber crimes.

“Wires are so simple, it’s an easier way to go, but monitor what’s going on and keep an eye out for the packet to arrive, that’s when they pounce,” he said.