What if a fraud scam impersonates both my lawyer and my real estate agent before closing in Ontario?

More sophisticated real estate scams do coordinate impersonation across more than one professional involved in your transaction, using compromised or spoofed communications that appear to come from both your lawyer and your agent to build a consistent, more convincing story around fraudulent wire instructions. Because the two messages appear to corroborate each other, this pattern can be more effective at overcoming a buyer's or seller's natural hesitation than a single suspicious email alone.

The defence remains the same regardless of how many people the scam impersonates: never act on wire instructions based on email or text alone, and independently verify by phone using numbers you already have or found through official channels, contacting each professional separately using details you sourced yourself rather than anything provided in the suspicious communications. If two people you trust appear to be telling you the same thing about a wire, treat that as a reason for careful, separate verification of both, not as confirmation that no verification is needed. If you suspect this is happening, contact both professionals directly, along with your bank, before sending anything.