• • Online, Safety is your 'Social Responsibility'
• • Cybersecurity tips that can pay off for your business
• • Combat real estate cyberthreats
• • Cybersecurity Checklist: Best practices for real estate professionals

Social media has changed the landscape for everyone. For you, it's made it easier to target clients. And for criminals, it's made it easier to target you.

Any bad guy you would potentially deal with before, during, and after a showing is playing a role. He's pretending to be someone you, the victim, can trust. From the time he first contacts you, he will stay in character until he either executes his plan or bails out. Pulling off that charade is a whole lot easier with free and easy tools online that he can use to create an identity and follow your trail.

On Facebook and other social media platforms, a criminal may be able to find out what college you attended, what sports teams you like, how many kids you have, and where you like to vacation. He can even see highly detailed images of where you work, live, and the place where he is going to meet you for a showing. Click here to read the entire REALTOR® Magazine article.

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Cybersecurity should be one of your business' highest priorities, yet many employers think that just changing your password regularly is sufficient. While it's certainly wise to cycle your passwords frequently and avoid public Wi-Fi, there are some less obvious ways for businesses to thwart future cyberattacks.

Savvy business owners should check out these three cybersecurity tricks you may not have considered: Read the trio of key cybersecurity tips from RISMedia by clicking here.

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Wire fraud and cybersecurity breaches remain valid threats in the real estate industry, despite precautions such as using password-protected Wi-Fi. In fact, wire fraud was the number one type of fraud in 2016, causing $50 billion in losses, according to PointPredictive's Chief Fraud Strategist Frank McKenna.

Cybersecurity breaches result in major losses, as well. But although some cybersecurity breaches can be traced back to the culprit, most wire fraud crimes are untraceable. It happens in real estate transactions when hackers break into a real estate professional's or a client's email account and look for upcoming dates of transactions, especially closings. The criminal emails the buyer, posing as the agent or title officer with wiring instruction changes at the eleventh hour. If the buyer complies and sends the money to the fraudulent account, the money is gone-just like that. Unfortunately, the offer for the house usually falls through as well.

Click here to view tips that may help you avoid becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft when doing business online.

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