Cheri Hipenbecker, General Counsel at Knight Barry Title, has witnessed the painful reality of wire fraud over the years and understands why relying on manual processes just isn’t enough anymore.

“We first faced a cybercrime incident in 2011. It was a compromise of someone’s computer. We had a seller’s proceeds loss,” Cheri shares. “We had a number of situations with buyer cash to close [funds]. It’s heartbreaking when that call comes that the money is lost.” 

After several close calls and incidents, Cheri and her team realized something had to be done. The manual verification they relied on was proving to be insufficient.

“Human effort really should work to be able to stop all of this,” she recalls. “But we realized we needed to have a tech solution for a tech problem.”

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Making fraud prevention simple and reliable

The team turned to CertifID’s PayoffProtect to take the guesswork and hassle out of wire verification.

“PayoffProtect is incredibly easy for our staff to use,” Cheri says. “They don’t have to call the lender or wait in a phone tree.”

It’s created a simple—and consistent—payoff verification system that’s drastically reduced the threat of fraud for her team.

Although Knight Barry now relies on CertifID’s PayoffProtect software to prevent wire fraud today, their first encounter with the company was through a recovery effort led by the Fraud Recovery Services team. This incident in particular has stayed with Cheri as a powerful reminder of why CertifID matters so much.

 “Before PayoffProtect, we had an incident where $152,000 was wired incorrectly.  We didn’t find out for over three months. The seller kept getting mortgage notices, but the money was gone.”

Thanks to CertifID’s partnership, Knight Barry Title was able to recover the full amount, down to the penny, six months later.

Reflecting on the experience, Cheri says with a grateful smile, “Honestly, I don’t know exactly how the recovery happened. I have no idea. I don’t want to know how the sauce was made, but thank you very much.”

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CertifID Has Become Part of the Culture

At Knight Barry Title, CertifID is far more than just another tool; it’s become an integral part of the team's daily operations.

Cheri shares, “It’s a term in our company, I mean, people use it as a verb. Did you know you were a verb? ‘Have you been CertifID?’ That’s the question.”

For Cheri and her team, CertifID delivers peace of mind across the board, from clients to staff to leadership, helping them work confidently without the constant worry of fraud.

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