PHOENIX — Could your property be listed for sale, and you don't even know it? It's happening nationwide and it's a big concern here in Arizona.
It nearly happened involving a house in the northern Arizona town of Parks.
"It was a $1.3 million home," said Flagstaff area Realtor Lisa Paffrath.
The home's sale would mean a nice commission, but there were no offers — or so Paffrath thought.
Then she was contacted by a title company.
"He Googled the address. I was the listing agent. He called me and he knew immediately something was wrong," Paffrath said.
RELATED: Scammers target vacant property to make fake sales
Someone had money in escrow, ready to buy the house from a fake seller — for less than half the real price.
"Three days away from closing and my seller could have lost the house and this buyer in Canada would have lost $550,000," she said.
Paffrath thinks if she didn't get that call, the fake sale would have gone through.
"They get a fake notary stamp or stolen notary stamp. And they are utilizing that as a mechanism to be able to record closing documents," Susan Nicolson, the Arizona Real Estate Commissioner, said.
Nicolson says her office is always looking for new protections against these scams. One idea is that Arizona notaries collect more information from sellers during real estate transactions, which is something already required in California.
"That notary log not only has the driver's license number and your signature — it also has your thumbprint," she said.
Currently, Arizona does not require thumbprints.
"That thumbprint enabled California to be able to catch this criminal and then be brought back to justice here in Maricopa County," she said.
Nicolson warns property owners, especially those with vacant houses or land, to be on alert. Buyers should look for scam signs like housing prices far below others in the market.
And Nicolson said real estate agents need to double-check everything.
"To make sure that you're working with a true and actual seller of a property," she said.
Paffrath says she and other Realtors are on high alert.
"What I tell my clients, the best protection they can have right now is to do a Google alert on all of their addresses and all of their properties," Paffrath said.
Google alerts are free and warn if someone is searching those addresses. It could be an early scam warning sign.
Paffrath also tries weeding out scam sellers by using the Forewarn app.
It takes phone numbers and provides name and background information.
"And if it comes up empty, it's usually a scam," she said.
In Maricopa County, you can register with the recorder's office to get alerts if anything is affecting your property.
Nicolson says that should be available in all Arizona counties by 2025.
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