Stamford police are investigating after someone managed to access an email exchange between a realtor and a person who was attempting to buy a home and tricked the buyer into wiring more than $400,000 into a fraudulent account, according to police.
They said the FBI was able to freeze the account and all but $1,000 was returned to the victim.
Police said a Stamford resident and a local realtor contacted them on March 10 and reported that they’d had been victims of wire fraud.
The resident was attempting to buy a home in Fairfield County and someone infiltrated the email exchange and tricked the home buyer into wiring $426,000 to a fraudulent account two days earlier, police said.
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The victim had also filed a complaint with the FBI, which was working to freeze the victim’s account, police said, and recovered $425,000.
The victim received the money within days and was able to move forward with plans to buy the house, police said.
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Stamford police urge anyone who falls victim to a scam to report it to law enforcement and the bank as soon as possible and to verbally confirm the bank account information with the relator.
