News & Events
Fraud protection protocols and processes
Between a down real estate market and rapidly advancing technology, internal fraud is perhaps more prevalent than ever. Learn a variety of ways title agents can defend themselves in today's fraudulent world...
-October 4, 2010
New software provides early fraud detection
Gone are the days of being a day late – and thousands of dollars short.
This is the sentiment behind a new product on the market, dedicated to escrow account protection. The brains behind RynohLive technology believe the software can take account security to a new, and necessary, level in the financial management industry.
“We prevent real estate wire fraud,” said Richard Reass, the designer and developer of RynohLive escrow management software. “In this industry, there’s been about $1 billion lost in the last three years.”
Reass also owns a real estate title insurance company, Reliant Title, in Virginia Beach. RynohLive was designed under its parent company, Segin Software Inc., which was formed to develop real estate and financial services software.
Reass began development for RynohLive in early 2004 in response to his own concerns about the industry.
After catching a series of fraudulent checks totaling several thousand dollars at Reliant Title, Reass wanted to form a protection system for title company escrow accounts. The software provides underwriters with real-time updates of title agents’ escrow
transactions, and immediately reports potentially fraudulent activity.
On Jan. 1, 2005, the RynohLive software was formed; it went national in February 2009. The brand now serves clients in 27 states, some of which have already caught employees embezzling money through detection by RynohLive.
“It’s every single day that we are protecting businesses,” said Reass, who explained that check fraud, embezzlement and defalcation are such pervasive problems, because they often go unnoticed for extended periods of time.
“We connect with the bank and the title company’s software, [to] take their information as [activity transpires]. As something clears the bank, we are getting it back to the client,” he said.
Segin Software currently offers protection software for the real estate industry, but intends to expand into other financial industries as its business expands. Reass said that until there is more transparency in the financial world, defalcation and embezzlement cases would continue to happen. He hopes that with his software, there will be fewer cases to catch.
Just this April and June, The Virginian-Pilot followed two cases of fraud by Virginia Beach attorneys caught in real estate schemes. Stephen M. Gunther was sentenced to 20 months in prison and Troy A. Titus was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
James “J.D.” Purcell, the lead developer for RynohLive, who also provides technical support, joined the company in early 2008. He explained how the software is a unique and convenient method for clients to say on top of financial accounts.
“I’ve done some searching around for some similar software, and I haven’t seen any that is automated the way ours is,” said Purcell.
“There’s usually some manual work each day – you have to log onto the bank’s website and download. If [clients] were trying to do a daily reconciliation each day, they would have to log on to the bank daily.”
RynohLive is reached through a website, for daily use, so that customers don’t have to install anything onto their computers.
Hampton Roads-based TowneBank has invested in the RynohLive product and is also a business partner with Segin Software. The bank has also implemented RynohLive software for its clients.
-By Danielle Walker of Inside Business, August 6, 2010
RynohLive Debuts Automated Transaction Verification System
Virginia Beach, VA -- As the National Settlement Agency reels from fraud conducted during disbursements, RynohLive responds with an industry first automated daily account reconciliation. Designed and built with the Real Estate Settlement industry and banks in mind, RynohLive performs on-going transactional verification reducing opportunities for fraud, error and omission.
Currently the accepted industry standard for account reconciliation of settlement funds is 30 days. It is not uncommon to allow funds to sit in escrow untracked during this period. This can lead to operational hiccups during receipt and disbursement of the settlement funds by the agents and result in financial losses to the consumer.
Dick Reass, President of RynohLive states “There are examples of settlement agents losing tens of thousands of dollars as interest accrues on monies that they have failed to track. This sends all parties involved into a scramble to locate and correct the error, resulting in loss of confidence, time and money.”
Recent advisories from leading national title insurance underwriters mandate that settlement agents only disburse on files that have collected funds, but this process requires human interaction. With the availability of the RynohLive suite of products, financial institutions now have an automated option for daily tracking and alerting for deposits received, not received when expected, or received with incorrect amounts.
One of Virginia’s top community banks is leading the way in transaction verification. “TowneBank has recognized the opportunity to increase our level of service internally and to our clients by leveraging daily tracking for account reconciliation during the settlement process” says Morgan Davis, President of Towne Financial Services. “The integration and use of RhynoLive reduces opportunities for errors and compliments our accounting systems nicely.”
Towne Financial Services and TowneBank have multiple RynohLive deployments and have moved forward in a regionally exclusive partnership and investment in Segin Software, LLC makers of RynohLive. RynohLive is available nationally immediately.
About RynohLive:
RynohLive is available from Segin Software, LLC a Virginia Beach, VA based software developer. Richard (Dick) Reass is president and founder. The RynohLive product has been extensively beta-tested over two years to meet security and banking standards. RynohLive is patent pending and available nationally. TowneBank is an exclusive RynohLive partner in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia and investor in Segin Software, LLC makers of RynohLive. http://www.rynoh.com
About TowneBank:
As one of Virginia’s top community banks, TowneBank now operates 17 banking offices in Chesapeake, Hampton, Portsmouth, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Williamsburg and York County. Towne also offers a full range of financial services through its controlled divisions and subsidiaries that include Towne Investment Group, Towne Insurance Agency, TFA Benefits, TowneBank Mortgage, TowneBank Commercial Mortgage, GSH Real Estate Corporation, TowneBank 1031 Exchange, LLC, Corolla Classic Vacations and Corolla Real Estate. Through its strategic partnership with William E. Wood and Associates and Prudential McCardle, the bank also offers mortgage services in all of the offices of both companies in Hampton Roads and Northeastern North Carolina. Local decision-making is a hallmark of its hometown banking strategy that is delivered through the leadership of each group’s President and Board of Directors. With total assets of $2.72 billion as of June 30, 2008, TowneBank is the largest bank headquartered in Hampton Roads. http://www.townebank.com