Told to wire $15,500 to a fruadulent person

[Dylancvest]

Jurisdiction

California

So my fiancé and I are trying to buy our first home.
We've saved a long time.

I'll try and keep short. My realtor fowarded and email to me containing a message from my title company with instructions on where to wire our closing costs to. The person giving the instructions very cleverly impersonated and real employee at the title company. The instructions were fruadualant, and long story short we were scammed out of all our closing costs and we are 2 days out from when we were supposed to close.
The money is frozen in the fraud dept at Wells Fargo thanks to my phone call.

Many people involved are expecting me to front another 15,500 in closing costs (which we don't have) to get my house or we will lose the house we worked hard for.

The scammer had information about us which included, who my realtor was, which title company we were using, our emails, address of the house, and the time frame we were looking to close.

What are my options? Who is liable for the money loss? Is it worth getting a lawyer? Should we sue for our privacy being violated? And who would would be reasponsible for the leaked information?
Any help would be appricaiated?
Should I be putting my foot down for someone else to eat those closing costs or at minimum front then until when/if my money is returned?

 

[adjusterjack]

Appears that your money is safe and you'll be getting it back.

If you want to take your anger out on somebody, it's the thief who tried to steal it that's responsible. Find him/her.

Otherwise, unless you want to spend $15,000 on investigation and litigation you aren't likely to be able to prove anybody "leaked" anything. Hacker criminals don't need any inside help.

Concentrate on getting your house. If you have to temporarily come up with the closing costs then do it or lose your house.

Up to you.

 

[army judge]

What are my options? Who is liable for the money loss? Is it worth getting a lawyer? Should we sue for our privacy being violated? And who would would be reasponsible for the leaked information?
Any help would be appricaiated?
Should I be putting my foot down for someone else to eat those closing costs or at minimum front then until when/if my money is returned?

Why would anyone be responsible for your stupidity?

Legally, you allowed yourself to be scammed.

You should have been smarter and VETTED the person before sending anyone one US dollar.

I don't need to know anything except you chose to do what the scammer directed.

In 90% of these cases, the scammer is safely ensconced on another continent protected by a wall of lies, and a rogue sovereign nation.

You are free to consult lawyers to chase $15K expect to lay out $5 to $10K without any guarantees of any return.

Even if there was a remedy in some court somewhere, that would likely take 18-24 months just to be heard.

You made the choice, you were beguiled, bamboozled, and flummoxed; and it is you that will eat the costs.

 

[Disabled Vet]

How do you know it's not a virus on your computer? Your cell phone? That allows this person to gain your information.

 

[zddoodah]

What are my options?

Options in terms of what? You said Wells Fargo (your bank, I assume) has frozen the funds, so you'll presumably be getting them back. Right? Presumably, you've reported what happened to the police. Right? As far as the house transaction, you're free to ask the seller to extend the time to complete the transaction, and the seller is free to say no. While what happened is unfortunate, it's your problem and not that of the other party to the transaction.

Who is liable for the money loss?

What money loss?

Is it worth getting a lawyer?

That's not for anyone but you to decide.

Should we sue for our privacy being violated?

Sue whom?

who would would be reasponsible for the leaked information?

We obviously have no way of knowing. In fact, we have no way of knowing that any information was "leaked."

Should I be putting my foot down for someone else to eat those closing costs or at minimum front then until when/if my money is returned?

Someone else like who? Again, this is an extremely unfortunate situation. You apparently have taken steps to minimize the impact, but some things may be out of your control. If you can figure out who is responsible for what happened, you're free to sue that person up, down and sideways, but I think it's unlikely that you'll identify him or her and, even if you do, it's probably unlikely that he or she has assets or income from which you could collect any judgment. If I were you, I'd be focusing on trying to persuade the seller to give you additional time.

 

[mightymoose]

I would not expect to get the money back in time to save the sale. This typically takes significantly more than two days to resolve.

An attorney can't help you with very much right now. You got scammed and it is unlikely the person responsible will ever be identified.