Arizona regulators are cracking down on a growing scam known as deed fraud that can cost Arizona home and land owners millions.
Scammers, both individuals and large international groups, illegally forge the real property owners signatures and use other deceptive methods, including fake IDs and phone numbers, to try to steal real estate.
Often the property owners don’t find out they’ve been scammed until after it happens. It can be costly and time consuming to get the homes and land back, if the owners are able to do so.
But an alert system launched statewide in 2025 helps Arizona property owners stay informed about any changes to their property title — and can help keep their homes and land out of the hands of scammers.
It’s easy to sign up to track property title changes in Arizona. Here’s how
The Arizona government service
sends an alert to a property owner if a deed, lien or some other change to their property record is filed.
To get alerts, all land and homeowners need to do is sign up for free with the county recorder where the property is located. It requires an email address, the type of property, name of the owner and how to best contact them.
For Maricopa County, go to https://recorder.maricopa.gov/recording/title-alert.html and visit https://www.pinal.gov/1792/Parcel-Alert-List-PAL for Pinal County's alert system.
Pima County's title alert system is at https://www.recorder.pima.gov/FraudNotify and go to https://www.coconino.az.gov/3318/Recording-Notification-Alerts for Coconino County.
After signing up, a property owner will get an alert to any changes within days.
Owners of about 100,000 Maricopa County properties have signed up. There are 1.5 million registered properties.
More property protection coming with second alert system
Additionally, a new Arizona law requires the state's county assessors to create an alert system providing earlier alerts to property owners about changes.
The new systems will provide free alerts about ownership and tax mailing address changes with the assessor in each Arizona county.
An early step scammers have done to try to steal properties is to change an owners tax contact information with an assessor. That makes tax bills go to them and not the rightful owner and helps fraudsters hide what they are doing so they can sell or take loans out against the home or land.
Legislation passed in 2026 calls all Arizona’s county assessors to have the new alert system in place by early 2027.
“What shocked me the most about deed fraud was a property owner will not know it happened until their house is literally sold to someone else, and a new owner shows up at the house,” Maricopa County Assessor Eddie Cook said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Do this right now to help stop scammers from stealing your home or land
