Arizona homeowners have a new tool to keep scammers who use fake IDs and forged documents from stealing their homes through deed fraud.
The Arizona Department of Real Estate has launched the Early Real Estate Sales Alert System, or ERAS, that alerts property owners if their homes or land are in escrow to sell. If the owners aren’t selling, the early alert can stop a fraudulent sale before it closes.
The growing deed fraud problem involves scammers using illegal and deceptive methods to fraudulently transfer property ownership without the real owners knowing. The bogus owners then resell the properties for quick profits or mortgage them to drain the equity.
“Protecting Arizona property owners is one of our top priorities," said Arizona Department
of Real Estate Commissioner Susan Nicolson. "With the introduction of ERAS, we are providing a critical tool to help stop this crime.”
She is encouraging all Arizona property owners to sign up for the early alert system. More than 17,375 properties across the state have been registered since the system was launched in late August.
Property owners can register through the Arizona Department of Real Estate’s website. All it takes is the owner's name, email, and the parcel number for the property that can be found on the website of the county assessor where the property is located.
Nicolson said so far a few transactions triggered a fraud alert on the ERAS system, but those were from escrow agents testing it.
About 500 Arizona real estate fraud complaints have been submitted since 2024, and most were for deed fraud, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
Alert system loops in title agencies, saves homes
Metro Phoenix real estate agent Debi Gotlieb almost lost her father’s south Scottsdale house to deed fraud in 2019, when someone forged a property deed and sold it to Zillow.
“Had there been an early alert system in place, this crime would have never happened to me,” said Gotlieb, who has become an expert on deed fraud and fought for more protections for property owners. “I wouldn’t have had to grieve my dad while working with attorneys, not knowing if we would get the house back that my dad owned for 40 years.”
Title agencies are key to the new alert system working because they typically manage the escrow and closing process, during which deed fraud can be found days to weeks before a sale closes.
Almost 60% of title firms reported at least one seller impersonation fraud attempt in 2025, up from 28% in 2024, according to the American Land Title Association.
Gotlieb has already tried out the fraud alert system, working with a title agency on a home signed up for the alerts that she put under contract.
“When I got notice, I clicked on a hyperlink that said I was not selling my house and the title company got immediate notice to stop the transaction,” she said in a social media post. “This will stop deed fraud. So darn excited.”
Nicolson said deed fraud can now be caught in Arizona when agents give escrow instructions.
“We are working with title and escrow agents who are the boots on the ground to stop fraud,” she said.
Stopping property thieves
Scammers typically target vacant land, rental properties and homes owned by seniors to illegally transfer ownership.
In April, Nathan Lucas Underwood tried to steal a $1.6 million upscale Scottsdale condominium, according to Scottsdale police. He showed the condo building's managers an ID with the real owner’s name, got the spare key and tried to hire a real estate agent to quickly sell it for a bargain price.
But a cleaning crew working for the real owners, who are snowbirds living in Nebraska, notified them they couldn't get the spare key to do their job. The owners, who bought the condo in 2024, flew to the Valley and also found the home had been burglarized.
The new Department of Real Estate alert system could have contacted the owners if the condo had gone into escrow to sell, and they signed up for it.
The defendant was arrested in late July and charged with fraudulent schemes, burglary and taking the identity of another person, according to court documents
In August, Valley real estate agent and investor John Rowan was contacted by a man saying he wanted to sell a Phoenix lot near the top of Camelback Mountain for a very low price.
“I knew right away something was off, and he didn’t own the land,” said Rowan, who helped Scottsdale police with a sting in November 2025 to catch two women trying to steal a home from a man living in a retirement community.
After getting the call about the Camelback Mountain lot, he called a fraud investigator with the Arizona Attorney General's Office and Phoenix police and found the real owner to alert him.
“The fake ID the guy was using was good, and the electronic signature he was using looked like the real owner’s real signature,” said Rowan, who started Home Fraud Defense to help homeowners fight deed fraud. “The real owner was scared.”
He told the man claiming to own the land that the real owner and law enforcement were onto him.
The fraudulent seller's bank was alerted to suspicious activity, and the account the scammer was using to try to wire money from the lot's sale was labeled as a mule account, said Rowan.
"Other agents had actually listed the land. We need better education on deed and title fraud for the real estate industry,” said Rowan. “The early alert system the real estate department has launched is going to help a lot.”
More help to fight deed fraud
Besides registering for the Department of Real Estate’s new alert system, Arizona property owners can register for a free statewide county recorder title alert system launched in 2025.
An alert for any filing on a property with a county recorder goes to its owner days after its recorded. Maricopa County homeowners can go to the county recorder's website to sign up for the program.
So far, more than 100,000 Maricopa County property owners have signed up for the recorder’s alert system. There are 1.5 million registered properties in Maricopa County.
Deed fraud has become so prevalent in Arizona that bipartisan legislation was passed at the state Capitol in 2026 to crack down on it. A new Arizona law that took effect Sept. 12 makes deed fraud a felony, requires better verification of the identities of buyers and sellers and establishes a third alert system.
Arizona county assessors must create alert systems this year to notify property owners of changes to ownership and any property tax mailing address changes.
Scammers try to change a property’s tax mailing address, so they get information sent to them instead of the real owner. That helps them commit deed fraud because they can show property bills as part of proof of ownership, and the real owners aren’t contacted about a sale.
Property owners must also sign up for the county assessor alert system when it's active. Arizona assessors must have their new alert systems ready by January 2027.
Nationally, criminals stole more than $275 million through online real estate fraud from at least 12,368 victims in 2025, according to the FBI.That was up from 9,359 victims who lost more than $173 million in 2024.
For cybercrime, including real estate fraud, Arizona ranked No. 6 in the U.S. with more than $631 million in losses, per the 2025 report.
Deed fraud complaints can be filed with the Arizona Department of Real Estate and the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
“By 2027, we will have a trifecta of real estate fraud alert systems in Arizona,” said Nicolson, commissioner of the real estate department. “Arizona will have the best protection for property owners.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: A scammer could sell your property. Arizona has a tool to warn you
