PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — On Dec. 14, 2018, Aaron Cole was about to buy a new house and received an email that he thought was from his title company, directing him to make a $123,000 deposit.

Cole complied, not realizing that a sophisticated hacker network had likely been spying on his communications with the title company and that although the email looked like others he had received from the title company, this time, the email address was slightly different.

A week later, the title company called, advising him it was time to send money. The Oregon man suddenly realized he had given away his fami...