Protect Yourself From Wire Fraud

As Artificial Intelligence technology improves, scammers are getting more creative and convincing.  Above is a 6-minute video of Philadelphia attorney Gary Schildhorn testifying about his experience as a target in one of these advanced scams.  We want to take this opportunity to remind you to be vigilant about cyber scams that try to trick you into revealing your personal information or paying money to unknown sources. 

Ways to Stay Protected

Fortunately, there are procedures in place to help prevent this from happening to you. 

• Use strong passwords for all of your financial accounts. Using special characters in your passwords and/or pass phrases, since length trumps complexity.
• Rely on multi-factor authentication – that’s when you enter a password, which triggers a passcode to be sent to your phone. Dual verification adds another layer of protection.
• Don’t ever respond to an email request for a wire or other fund transfers. A good financial professional will always call you to verify transfers, as our team does.
• Baird advisors are trained to always call you with any questions about a specific transfer, especially if there are last-minute changes.
• Wire transfers for real estate transactions are especially high targets for fraud. Our team calls the receiving party independently for all wire transactions to verify the wire instructions before the transfer.

Wire transfers are a tremendous convenience for those who need to move significant amounts of assets, but their sheer size means you should always tread carefully. Our team is trained to recognize the warning signs and take the necessary steps to keep your assets safe.

If you have any concerns about a transfer of funds or want to take proactive steps to steer clear of fraud, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our team.