AI-Generated Email Used in $255,000 Real Estate Wire Fraud
A homebuyer in West Virginia allegedly lost $255,000 after receiving a fraudulent wire transfer instruction email that she believes was generated by AI. Cybersecurity experts report scammers increasingly use generative AI to create realistic emails and voice clones impersonating real estate professionals.
What happened
On August 23, 2024, Raegan Bartlo received an email appearing to be from a title company lawyer with instructions to wire $255,000 for her home purchase down payment in West Virginia. She sent the money to the account listed in the email, but two days later learned the funds had been sent to a scammer.
Bartlo believes the scam email was generated by an AI program, noting it had a conversational yet professional tone with no grammatical errors—characteristics typical of AI-generated text. Cybersecurity experts confirm that scammers are using generative AI programs to impersonate real estate agents, lenders and other parties in home sales, mimicking their writing style in emails and voice in voicemails.
Reported impact
Bartlo reported feeling violated and feared the family had lost everything. The $255,000 wire fraud resulted in significant financial loss for the homebuyer.
Index analysis
According to cybersecurity officials, AI-generated scam emails and voicemails are difficult to detect because they lack the grammatical errors and suspicious characteristics typical of manually written fraud attempts. A real estate wire fraud prevention company executive demonstrated creating an AI voicemail mimicking a real estate agent and an AI-generated email with wiring instructions using readily available AI tools.
Governance controls
The former head of the U.S. Secret Service cybercrimes unit reported encountering this type of scam almost immediately after ChatGPT's release in late 2022. Scammers use techniques including hacking into accounts, phishing real estate professionals for transaction details, and leveraging publicly available information from real estate databases to make their scams more persuasive.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.