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David L. Fleck Weighs In on a Growing Real Estate Scam in New Article
February 10, 2025Los Angeles Partner David L. Fleck was recently quoted in an article by Realtor.com warning homebuyers about a real estate scam that is on the rise. The scam occurs when cybercriminals hack into the email account(s) of the title company, real estate agency, the buyer, and/or the seller involved in a pending sale transaction and send false wire instructions to the buyer, who “then unwittingly sends the money into the account of the criminal.”
Mr. Fleck expanded on why this form of fraud is particularly devastating. “If someone steals your credit card, you call and cancel it, and they don’t charge your card,” he explained. “If someone hacks into your bank account, the bank will cover losses. But in this kind of fraud, you send the money to the bad guy’s account, likely overseas, and then it transfers to three other accounts, and you never see the money again.”
The article – which revealed that real estate wire fraud has grown from $9 million to $446 million in annual losses in less than a decade – discusses red flags homebuyers should watch out for and how they can avoid falling victim to the scam.
David L. Fleck is a member of the Governmental Entity Liability team. Before joining the firm, Mr. Fleck worked in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office Major Fraud Division, where he focused on real estate fraud cases and quickly became known as the “Fraud DA” for North Los Angeles County. After leaving the DA’s office, he joined a boutique law firm that represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which was litigating numerous mortgage fraud cases that arose out of the financial crisis of 2008. Following this, Mr. Fleck started his own practice, primarily representing victims of fraud in lawsuits to recover their stolen funds and property. In this capacity, he handled both civil and criminal cases in both state and federal courts.
Currently, Mr. Fleck is Co-Chair of the Mortgage Fraud Taskforce of the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI), and he teaches the legal module of a four-day, POST-certified class for detectives about real estate fraud investigations, a program for which he helped develop the curriculum. He is also the co-founder of a company which develops technology for notaries and title insurance agencies to prevent the forgery of documents such as deeds, powers of attorney, and contracts.