Paying for a Pre-Construction Villa From Abroad: Secure Wire Transfers, Payment Verification, and Avoiding Real Estate Wire Fraud

Only pay into an account you have confirmed by phone, using a number you got from your signed contract or the developer's own website, never from an email. Send a small test wire first. Once it lands, send the balance and match every payment to your contract schedule with a written receipt. Real estate wire fraud nearly always hits when new bank details arrive by email, so a safe international wire transfer for a property purchase is one you check outside your inbox.

What You Need to Know

• Bank details for a pre-construction purchase are set once, in the contract, and should almost never change.
• Check every set of payment instructions by calling back a number you already have, not one from the email.
• The refundable $5,000 reservation deposit is your smallest payment. Use it to test the whole payment chain.
• Keep a payment ledger with your bank's wire confirmation, the SWIFT reference and a signed receipt for each milestone.
• If money goes to the wrong account, call your bank within hours and ask for a recall.

How Does Real Estate Wire Fraud Work on a Property Purchase Abroad?

Most real estate wire fraud is business email compromise. A criminal breaks into an email account in your transaction, or imitates one, and sends you "updated" bank details just before a payment is due. The money goes to an account they control. By the time anyone notices, it has usually been moved on.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) lists business email compromise among the costliest types of reported cybercrime in its annual Internet Crime Report, with losses in the billions of dollars every year. Why are property deals such a common target? Large sums move on predictable dates, and the people sending them are often in another time zone, dealing in a second language.

Why pre-construction buyers have more exposure

A resale purchase usually has one large transfer at closing. A pre-construction villa has several: a reservation deposit, a payment at contract signing, then milestone payments tied to the build contract. Each one is a fresh chance for a fraudster who has been quietly reading the email thread.

Say you're in Munich, five or six hours ahead of Las Terrenas. On a Friday evening an email arrives "from the developer's accounts team." It says the bank has changed and the next instalment should go to a new account by Monday. The message is urgent, it lands after hours, and it's hard to check over a weekend. That combination is the pattern to watch for.

Payment instructions that arrive by email are only a claim until someone you trust confirms them by voice, on a number you already had.

How Do You Verify Payment Instructions Before Wiring a Deposit?

Call a phone number you found yourself, from the signed reservation agreement, the developer's official website or an in-person meeting, and have the details read back to you one digit at a time. Never call a number printed in the email that delivered the instructions.

The call-back routine

1. Find the number yourself. Use the contact details in your contract, not the email signature.
2. Have them read the details to you. Ask for the beneficiary name, bank name, account number or IBAN, SWIFT/BIC code and payment reference. Don't read yours out and wait for a "yes."
3. Check the beneficiary. It should be the developer's legal entity named in your contract. Never pay an individual, an agent or a "partner company."
4. Run a second, independent check with your lawyer.
5. Send a small test amount. Call again to confirm it arrived, then wire the balance.

Why the test wire is worth the extra fee

A test transfer costs you one extra bank charge. Compared with a milestone payment on a lot that starts at $74,100, that's cheap insurance. At Sienna, the refundable $5,000 reservation deposit works as a natural test. Once it's confirmed as received, you know the account, the reference format and how long your bank's route takes.

Our team works in English, French, Spanish and German, so you can make the confirmation call in your own language. Mishearing one digit on a bad line is also how honest mistakes happen, so the language matters.

What Are the Red Flags of a Compromised Email?

The clearest red flag is any change to bank details, especially when it comes with urgency or a request for secrecy. Developers and law firms rarely change receiving accounts partway through a contract. When they do, they expect you to check by phone.

Watch for:

• A sender address that's almost right. A swapped letter, an extra hyphen, or a different ending (.co instead of .com).
• A "reply-to" address that differs from the sender's.
• A new beneficiary name, or a bank in a different country from the one in your contract.
• Pressure, such as "the bank needs it today," "don't call, I'm in meetings" or "keep this confidential."
• A PDF of new instructions on letterhead you haven't seen before.
• A change in tone or language. For example, a contact who always writes in Spanish suddenly writes in stiff English.
• Requests to split a payment across several accounts, or to pay by crypto or a money-transfer app.

What a fraudster can't easily fake

They can copy a logo and spoof a display name. They can't answer a phone number you already had, and they can't change the contract your lawyer holds. Those two checks are your defence. A red flag doesn't always mean fraud, but it always means you stop and call before sending anything.

What Should You Confirm With the Developer and Your Lawyer?

Before your first payment, get written confirmation of who receives the funds, how payment instructions will be sent to you, and what receipt you'll get back. If you settle this once at the start, any later change will stand out immediately.

Questions for the developer

• Which legal entity and bank account receives deposits and milestone payments, and is that entity named in the contract?
• If the bank details ever change, how will I be told, and will it always be confirmed by phone?
• What reference should each payment carry so it's matched to my lot and the right milestone?
• How soon will I get a signed receipt, and in what form?

Questions for your lawyer

• Have you checked that the beneficiary is the same entity as the seller on the contract and the title?
• Should any payment go through escrow or a client account instead?
• What source-of-funds documents will the bank and notary need? Dominican anti-money-laundering rules (Law 155-17) mean you will be asked where the money came from, so keep your bank statements ready.

Your lawyer should be independent of the developer. To understand what protects your milestone payments if a project stalls, read our guide to off-plan buyer protections in the Dominican Republic. For how the deposit itself works, see Sienna's reservation deposits and payment schedules.

Paying the developer directly also keeps your records clear for CONFOTUR. Sienna has provisional status under Resolution 203-2024, extended by Resolución 61-2026. The definitive classification was filed in July 2026 and is still pending, and the benefits only take effect once it's issued. They apply only to the first buyer who purchases directly from the developer. A clean record of direct payments to the developer is the simplest way to show you are that buyer.

How Should You Document Each Milestone Payment?

Keep a ledger that links every wire to a line in your contract's payment schedule, with your bank's confirmation and the developer's signed receipt kept together. If a dispute ever comes up, that ledger is your evidence.

What goes in each payment file

• The MT103. Ask your bank for it after each wire. It's the standard SWIFT record of what was sent, when and to whom.
• A note of the verification call. Write down the date, time, number dialled and who you spoke to, along with a screenshot of the instructions you confirmed.
• The developer's receipt. Check that the amount and reference match the wire exactly.

At Sienna, the owner portal reports the milestones for each buyer's own villa. Check that each payment request matches a reported milestone and a line in your contract before you send anything.

How Do Currency, Fees and Bank Checks Affect Your Transfer?

Expect fees from intermediary banks, a margin on currency conversion, and possibly a call from your own bank's fraud team before a large wire goes out. Take that call. It protects you.

• Currency: Sienna prices are in US dollars. Lots start at $74,100, and villas (villa only) range from $200,100 to $926,550. If you hold CAD, EUR or CHF, compare your bank's exchange rate with a specialist currency provider's, and confirm the amount that has to arrive, not the amount you send.
• Fees: Intermediary banks can take fees along the way, so a payment may arrive short. Ask your bank for "OUR" charging, which means you pay all the fees and the full amount lands.
• Timing: International wires can take several business days, so don't send a milestone payment on its due date.

If you're converting euros and the payment arrives a little under the scheduled amount because an intermediary bank took a fee, the receipt won't match your ledger. Then you're stuck with an awkward top-up wire, which is one more payment to verify. For the wider picture, see our guide on moving money in and out of the Dominican Republic.

What Should You Do If You've Wired Money to the Wrong Account?

Call your bank straight away, within the hour if you can, and ask them to recall the wire and contact the receiving bank. How fast you act matters more than anything else.

1. Call your bank's fraud line and ask for a SWIFT recall.
2. Call the developer and your lawyer on numbers you already know.
3. Report it. In the US, file with the FBI's IC3. In Canada, report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. In the UK, use Action Fraud. In Europe, go to your local police.
4. Keep the evidence. Don't delete the emails, because the message headers show where they really came from.
5. Secure your own email. Change your passwords and turn on two-factor authentication. The compromised inbox is sometimes yours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pay a pre-construction villa deposit by card or money-transfer app?

Deposits and milestone payments for a Dominican property purchase are normally sent by bank wire to the account named in your contract. If anyone asks you to use an app, crypto or a personal account instead, treat it as a red flag and check by phone.

Is it safer to fly in and pay in person?

Usually not. Carrying large sums is a risk in itself, and amounts above the legal threshold must be declared at Dominican customs. The U.S. State Department rates the Dominican Republic at Level 2, "Exercise Increased Caution", and Canada's travel advice for the Dominican Republic recommends a high degree of caution. A verified wire is the safer option. You can also sign without travelling: see remote closing with a power of attorney.

What if an email says Sienna's bank details have changed?

Don't act on it. Call the team on the number in your contract or on our website, and also confirm with your own lawyer. Until both confirm by voice, treat the email as suspicious, however real it looks.

How do I know a milestone payment was received?

You should get a signed receipt showing the amount and your lot reference. Keep it with your MT103 and the matching milestone report from the owner portal. If no receipt arrives within the agreed time, call. Don't wait.

The Bottom Line

Wire fraud in property purchases depends on one thing: you trusting bank details that arrived by email. Calling back a number you already have shuts that down. Test the route with the refundable $5,000 deposit, check again before every milestone, and keep a ledger that matches each wire to your contract schedule. Before your first transfer, contact the Sienna team by phone to confirm the receiving account in your own language.