Fraudsters are impersonating property owners to illegally sell commercial or residential property. Sophisticated fraudsters are using the real property owner’s Social Security and driver’s license numbers in the transaction, as well as legitimate notary credentials, which may be applied without the notary’s knowledge. ALTA has created several handouts to educate your staff and consumers about this threat.
Resources for Title Professionals
Savvy Consumer 
ALTA created this handout that members can use to help educate consumers about how they can protect themselves from seller impersonation fraud.
Combating Seller Impersonation Fraud
This handout highlights different ways consumers can protect themselves from seller impersonation fraud and explains the protection provided by the ALTA Owner’s Policy and ALTA Homeowner’s Policy of Title Insurance.
Seller Impersonation Fraud in Real Estate 
Fraudsters are impersonating property owners to illegally sell commercial or residential property. Use this document to train your staff on the red flags and how to take precautions to help prevent these scams.
- ALTA Members can customize this file through the ALTA Prints Library.
- This is available in several languages in our multilingual library.
What Is Deed Fraud?
Deed fraud schemes involve impersonating the actual owner and recording fake or forged documents in local land records. In other cases, property owners are deceived or convinced to sign documents related to their property that are not in their best interests. ALTA, along with the AARP, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors, National Notary Association and Property Records Industry Association, developed this handout to provide education and solutions to these real estate scams.
TitleNews Articles
Featured: The Latest Scam Vacant Land Fraud
March 2023
Jamie Kosofsky had just spent a full day attending a cybersecurity conference hosted by Premier One. After eight hours of hearing about all the stuff that could go wrong, a founding partner of the North Carolina-based law firm Brady & Kosofsky, spent the night changing passwords, making adjustments and implementing new ideas to better protect his company.
Seller Impersonation Fraud in Real Estate
January 2024
FrudstersS are impersonating property owners to illegally sell commercial or residential property. Sophisticated fraudsters are using the real property owner’s Social Security and driver’s license numbers in the transaction, as well as legitimate notary credentials, which may be applied without the notary’s knowledge.
Companies Unveil Solutions to Help Thwart Seller Impersonation
July 2023
CertifID and ClosingLock each launched new identity verification solutions to help title agencies and real estate firms combat the growing threat of seller impersonation fraud.