Seller Impersonation Fraud: Red Flags for Vacant Land Owners, Buyers, and Real Estate Agents

Criminals are posing as the owners of vacant land and other property they do not occupy and selling it out from under them. Here is how the scheme works, what to watch for, and what owners can do today.

Most of the real estate fraud people hear about involves a buyer’s closing funds diverted by a fake wiring instruction. Seller impersonation runs the other way. A criminal poses as the owner of a property, usually one the real owner does not live on or visit often, engages a real agent and a real title company, and tries to sell the property and disappear with the proceeds before the owner learns it was ever listed. The FBI issued a public warning about the scheme on June 16, 2026, and the American Land Title Association’s latest study suggests it is accelerating.

How the Scheme Works

As the FBI describes it, the fraudster gathers the owner’s personal information from public property records, data brokers, phishing, or stolen data, then creates a fake driver’s license or passport, an email account, and an internet phone number in the owner’s name. Posing as the owner, the fraudster hires a local real estate agent to market the property and a title company to close the sale, in at least one reported case using a fictitious deed to make the story more convincing, and directs the sale proceeds to an accomplice, who in the cases the FBI describes is an attorney in another state. Vacant parcels are the favorite target because no one is living there to notice a sign in the yard or a buyer walking the lot.

The Scale of the Problem

ALTA’s spring 2026 survey of title professionals put the share of firms that faced at least one impersonation attempt during 2025 at 59 percent, more than double the 28 percent in its 2024 survey, and 45 percent had seen one in just the month before the survey, compared with 19 percent two years earlier. Asked which properties fraudsters go after, 82 percent of respondents called vacant land at least a somewhat common target, ahead of vacation homes and rentals, and the properties singled out tended to be owned free and clear, owned by someone who lives elsewhere, or left behind by an owner who had recently died. Some attempts succeed. A quarter of the firms that saw an attempt said they had paid a claim, and half of those willing to share figures said their average claim ran over $100,000. More than half of the firms surveyed also said image or voice deepfakes were at least somewhat common.

Red Flags for Agents and Closing Agents

The warning signs line up across the FBI’s alert and ALTA’s findings. A seller who can be reached only by email, text, or an internet phone number, and who always has a reason (travel, illness, a family emergency) not to meet or appear on video, deserves a closer look. So does a seller in a hurry to take cash at a price well under market value, a seller who seems to know little about the property or cannot produce something as ordinary as a survey or a tax bill, and a seller whose story does not match the public record. Requests for a mail-away signing with a notary the seller picks, a notarization in another country, or proceeds wired to an account in a different name or overseas belong on the same list. No single sign proves fraud, but two or three together should stop a listing or a closing until the seller’s identity has been confirmed through a channel the seller does not control, such as the mailing address on the property tax record.

What Owners Can Do Now

Each of Florida’s 67 counties offers a free property alert service, run by the clerk of court (in Orange County, the comptroller), that notifies subscribers when a deed, mortgage, or other document is recorded in their name. In Volusia County, the Clerk’s Property Fraud Alert sends an email or phone alert within about 48 hours of a recording in a registered person’s or business’s name, and owners can monitor more than one name. Owners of land they do not occupy, including land titled in an LLC or a trust, should register every name the property is titled in. The FBI also suggests that owners review their owner’s title insurance policy to see whether it protects against forgery and other problems arising after the policy date. Buyers can protect themselves too: before closing on vacant land, the FBI recommends sending a certified letter to the owner’s address on the tax record, which alerts the real owner if the seller is not who they claim to be.

Why the Closing Agent Matters

Seller impersonation is stopped, or missed, at the closing table, because that is where identity is verified, documents are notarized, and money moves. A closing agent who verifies a remote seller through independent means, who will not accept a notary or payout instruction simply because the seller picked it, and who is willing to delay a closing that does not add up is doing exactly what this scheme is built to get around. If something about a listing or a sale of vacant land seems off, contact our title team before the closing, not after the deed is recorded.

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It reflects the FBI’s and ALTA’s published guidance and figures as of publication. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.