A buyer signs a remote sales agreement, receives an email from their notary asking them to transfer funds to a new bank account, and complies within the hour. The problem: this email did not come from the notary. This type of scenario, driven by the rise of fraud through manipulation in France in 2025, has shifted the risk from fake websites to the compromise of the intermediaries themselves.
Securing a real estate transaction online is no longer limited to checking that a padlock appears in the address bar.
Bank account fraud and identity theft of the notary: the real danger of online real estate transactions
It is often thought that the main risk of an online real estate transaction is encountering a fake listing. Recent feedback shows that the most costly attacks target the trust chain between buyer, seller, agency, and notary.
After several cyberattacks directly targeting the French notary system, bank details sent via simple email have become a major vulnerability. A hacker intercepts an email exchange, substitutes the notary’s bank account with their own, and the funds are sent to a third-party account. Never validate a change of bank account received via email without independent verification is the basic rule.
In practice, verify the bank account by phone by calling the notary’s office directly (not the number listed in the suspicious email). Some offices now use secure portals to transmit their bank details, which prevents any interception. If your notary does not offer this type of channel, ask about it before the first transfer.
To search for a property or compare listings on reliable platforms, you can go through cyberimmobilier.fr, which centralizes verified real estate offers, thus reducing the risk of encountering fake mandates right from the prospecting phase.
Identity verification in a remote real estate sale: the reflexes to adopt
Identity theft does not only affect notaries. Fake sellers, armed with false papers or stolen documents, are selling properties that do not belong to them. With data leaks that have compromised the tax information of several million homeowners in France in recent years, fraudsters have the raw material to create credible fake files.
Check the seller’s identity before the agreement
Before signing anything, ensure that the seller is indeed the registered owner with the land registry service. The notary usually performs this verification, but nothing prevents the buyer from requesting a property statement to cross-check the information.
- Request a valid ID and compare the information with the property title provided by the notary.
- Verify the consistency of the property’s address with urban planning documents (land registry available online on the government website).
- Refuse any transaction where the seller declines a video conference or in-person meeting before signing, especially if the sale is conducted entirely remotely.
A seller who refuses any direct identity verification is an immediate warning signal. Even in a 100% online transaction, a video call with the presentation of an ID remains an effective filter against impersonations.
Electronic signature and proof of delivery: securing the legal framework of the sale
Remote real estate sales are more strictly regulated in terms of documentary compliance. One often overlooked point: in a remote sale, the proof of delivery of the agreement to the correct recipient conditions the legal withdrawal period. If the notification is not formally addressed to the correct buyer, the period does not start, and the transaction can be contested months later.
We prefer electronic registered letters with acknowledgment of receipt, which offer legal traceability equivalent to paper registered letters. Qualified electronic signature platforms (in the sense of the European eIDAS regulation) ensure the integrity of the document and the identity of the signer.
What the electronic signature does not protect
The electronic signature secures the act itself, but not the exchanges surrounding it. Annex documents (technical diagnostics, inventory, certificates) often circulate via regular email without encryption. A hacker who accesses a real estate agent’s email can modify an asbestos diagnosis or a risk statement before the buyer downloads it.
Systematically request annex documents via the notary’s secure portal rather than through unencrypted email to limit this risk. If the agency sends the documents by email, at a minimum, check that the PDF file has not been modified after its creation (the file’s metadata indicates the last modification date).
Fake advisor scam and real estate social engineering: recognizing common scenarios
Fraud through manipulation is rapidly increasing in France and is now hitting the real estate sector hard. The typical scenario: a fake bank advisor or a fake real estate agent contacts the buyer by phone, presents themselves with credible information (notary’s name, file reference, exact transaction amount), and requests urgent action.
- Call pretending there is a blockage of the transfer at the notary, asking for funds to be sent to a “temporary escrow account.”
- SMS imitating the real estate agency, containing a link to a fake payment portal for processing fees.
- Email impersonating the notary’s address with an infected attachment, aiming to retrieve the buyer’s banking credentials.
The countermeasure is simple but demanding: never act urgently on a financial request related to a real estate transaction. Hang up, call the official contact yourself, and verify each request through a second independent channel.
Feedback varies on the effectiveness of antivirus software against these attacks, as social engineering does not rely on a virus but on human manipulation. Personal vigilance remains the first line of defense.
The security of an online real estate transaction relies less on the technology of the site than on the rigor of each exchange between the parties. Verifying a bank account by phone, requiring a secure portal for documents, refusing any urgency imposed by a third party: these simple actions protect better than the latest antivirus. The weak link in an online real estate sale is almost always the human element.
