2025
When a wire fraud incident occurs, it's critical your security software stands up to its claims to protect you and your business. Accurate Disbursing chose CertifID as its partner to prevent wire fraud and now has 121,000 reasons why CertifID will remain a foundational tool for its business.
Accurate Disbursing
Construction Disbursement
Accurate Disbursing
Construction Disbursement
Accurate Disbursing was formed in 2005 as the result of a need in the Midwestern U.S. for an independent disbursing company to provide construction disbursing services for multiple title organizations.
Since its inception, Accurate Disbursingâs goal has been to provide superior nationwide online disbursing services for lenders, developers, and all of its construction partners. Accurate Disbursing has now disbursed on commercial and residential construction in over 28 states for over 85 financial institutions across the US.
Handling residential, subdivision development, and commercial projects, Accurate Disbursing protects your interest through each stage of the construction process.
Accurate Disbursing was working with a new general contractor on an out-of-state deal for a remodel of an office building. Accurateâs Disbursing Officer had been emailing with the owner of the general contractor about the deal for over two weeks. However, unbeknownst to Accurate, the ownerâs email account had been compromised, and a fraudster (âthe ownerâ) was using the ownerâs legitimate email account to impersonate the real owner.
âThe ownerâsâ emails did not contain significant misspelling or other obvious signs of fraudulent activity. Their emails even included multiple employees from the general contractor ccâd on the chain, the general contractorâs email footer, and the company's fraud warnings.
Prior to the disbursement date, Accurate received an email from âthe ownerâ of the general contractor with a set of Chase Bank wire instructions listed in the body of the email. âThe ownerâ listed a number for Accurate to call to verify and was pushy, requesting the funds be sent that day.
As a CertifID customer, Accurate's disbursement processes included sending a CertifID Confirm Request to allow the recipient of the wire to confirm their wire instructions prior to disbursement. This quick process validates the identity of the recipient and prompts their approval on where the funds will be sent. Additionally, CertifID provides $1M of direct insurance coverage for the wire.
Accurate sent a CertifID Confirm Request with the provided Chase Bank instructions to âthe ownerâ. âThe ownerâ, who Accurate had been emailing for weeks, attempted to complete the Confirm Request; however, CertifIDâs layered security technology flagged "the owner" as suspicious and did not allow them to proceed. Accurateâs Disbursing Officer was notified that âthe ownerâ had failed CertifID, raising a big red flag on this wire transfer.
Accurate informed âthe ownerâ it would not proceed with the wire without a successful confirmation through CertifID. âThe ownerâ quickly responded via email with a different set of wiring instructions on a PDF, now directing the funds to a Citizens Bank account. Accurate thought this was suspicious, as most of its customers do not change wire instructions, and sent a second Confirm Request to confirm the new wire instructions with âthe ownerâ.
For a second time, âthe ownerâ failed the Confirm Request due to CertifIDâs layered security technology flagging this individual as potential fraud. Accurateâs Disbursing Officer called the verification number âthe ownerâ provided in their initial email to identify what was wrong. When the voice on the line drastically differed from previous calls, Accurate immediately ceased communications. Accurateâs Disbursing Officer then reached out to CertifIDâs Support Team to request further insight as to why âthe ownerâ failed to pass CertifID's security.
The CertifID Support Team identified âthe ownerâ was attempting to present their location as being in Georgia; however, CertifIDâs layered security technology identified âthe ownerâ was operating out of Nigeria, a wire fraud hotbed.
CertifIDâs Support Team immediately contacted Accurate. They informed the Disbursing Officer to proceed with extreme caution due to the high likelihood Accurate was communicating with a fraudster via a compromised email account. Accurate then contacted the general contractor using a verified phone number. When the real owner of the general contractor answered the call, he was surprised to have not seen any of the email communications that had taken place on his account.
After establishing secure communication with the general contractor, Accurate sent a CertifID Confirm Request to the real owner. On the first attempt, he successfully passed CertifIDâs layered security technology and confirmed the wire instructions adding $5M in direct insurance per file. Accurate was able to fully fund the deal to the correct account.
Following a debrief with Accurate on the details and communications, CertifID worked with Federal Authorities to deactivate the fraudulent bank accounts and share the newly black listed details ensuring these details could not be used in future wire fraud attempts.
"There are 121,000 reasons, which was the amount of the transaction, why we like using CertifID."
David Rhoads, General Manager at Accurate Disbursing