I felt the blood drain from my face. I had heard of such scams, but I never thought it would happen to me

O

ur search for a new house last year took us on a wild odyssey through law enforcement, the banking system, and the insurance industry that in the end reminded us Who’s in charge of the world, and how much He treasures the mitzvah of tzedakah.

We had been looking for a larger house, for all the usual reasons, for years. We had a few basic requirements: It had to be big enough to accommodate our growing family, kein ayin hara; it had to have room for guests; and it had to be within walking distance of the Chabad center where I serve as the shaliach.

A great opportunity fell through on Erev Rosh Hashanah 2021, but during Chol Hamoed Succos we saw a great house on Zillow that would become available soon after Yom Tov. It was everything we wanted: perfect location, more bedrooms, larger kitchen, more seating in the dining room.

Baruch Hashem, in two weeks we had a contract, and in three weeks, we were approved for a mortgage.

My grandfather gave us a bridge loan of $200,000 so we wouldn’t have to sell our current house under pressure (and it still needed some work). The money was sitting comfortably in my checking account. We were all good to go.

The closing for the new house was set for Thursday, December 30, in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, December 21, my lawyer sent an email telling me the exact amount I needed for the closing. He asked me to wire it to his escrow account so that we would have no headaches the day of closing. Not a problem. Two days later, I went into the bank and went through the protocols for wiring $136,000 to his account.

On Friday, December 24, about one hour before Shabbos, my lawyer sent an email telling me the exact amount I needed for the closing. He asked me to prepare the checks ahead of time so there would be no headaches the day of closing.

Confused, I sent him an email saying that I had already sent the money.

Now he was confused. He wrote back asking me what I had sent.

I quickly called him on the phone. We realized instantly there had been an email hack. He was not the one who had sent me the first request.

I had wired $136,000 to a crook.