Seller impersonation fraud is a sale run by someone posing as the owner: the impostor signs the papers, and the buyer's money goes to an account the impostor controls. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's alert of June 16, 2026 describes the scheme aimed at vacant parcels, and its one recommendation to buyers is a certified letter to the address on the land's tax record. The checks below follow United States practice. They are general information, not legal advice.
A case from Palm Beach County
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida describes a group that, between April 2022 and April 2023, tried to sell vacant lots in Palm Beach County, Florida, that belonged to other people. The group took the real owners' personal details and used them to make fake driver licenses, notary credentials, bank statements and other sale documents. When a sale closed, the buyer received wire instructions for a bank account the group controlled.
One member pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and mail fraud in January 2025 and was sentenced that April to six years in federal prison.
How the scheme runs
The federal alert sets the scheme out in three phases.
- The impostor gathers facts about the owner and the parcel from public databases, data brokers or the dark web, then builds a false identity around them: forged identification, a new email account and an internet phone number.
- Posing as the owner, the impostor contacts a local agent or title company and drafts a sales contract. In one case the alert describes, a fake deed helped convince the agents the sale was real.
- The sale money goes to an account the impostor controls. The alert names a co-conspirator attorney in another state as one destination.
Mailed offers to landowners carry a risk of their own. Anyone who reads such a letter can call the number on it and say the parcel is theirs, and the call proves only that the caller has seen the letter.
Why vacant land
The American Land Title Association's warning of May 9, 2023 names vacant lots and properties with no mortgage as the targets, and says the fraudsters have used legitimate notary credentials without the notary's knowledge. An empty parcel has no occupant to notice a stranger showing it to buyers.
The signs in the federal alert
The June 2026 alert lists five warning signs. Each can have an innocent explanation, so the table pairs each sign with a check.
| Sign in the alert | The check that settles it |
|---|---|
| The seller writes, texts or calls from an internet number and will not meet in person | A live video call about the land, and the letter to the tax-record address |
| The seller pushes to close fast, sometimes below market value | No closing date until the owner of record answers the letter |
| The seller knows little about the property, or the details or documents do not line up | Questions on access, boundaries and the last tax bill, and every document compared with the county record |
| Payment is to go by wire, at home or abroad, to an account unrelated to the seller | Payment only into the escrow account of a title company the buyer chose |
| The deed was notarized in another country, or the paperwork is unusual | A signing arranged by a title company or closing attorney the buyer picked |
Checking the seller
The counterparty verification checklist has a line for each of these steps, with room for the source and the date.
- Find the county assessor or treasurer site and the county recorder site by searching for them, never through a link the seller sent. Write down the owner's name exactly as recorded, the date the owner acquired the land and the mailing address on the tax bill.
- Send a certified letter to that mailing address, with a name and phone number, asking the owner to call about the sale. This is the buyer's check the federal alert recommends.
- Compare the person who calls back with the seller. If someone else calls back, or nobody calls, the deal waits.
- Use only phone numbers and email addresses found without the seller's help, and confirm nothing through a number, address or link inside the seller's own messages.
- On a live video call, ask about the land itself: the road in, what borders it, the last tax bill, why the owner bought it.
- Have the buyer's own title company or closing attorney arrange the notary. If the seller insists on a notary of their own, look up the commission with the state office that issued it and call the notary at a number the seller did not provide.
- Send money only to the escrow account of the title company or closing attorney the buyer chose. Dealbender's page on verifying wire instructions before a closing covers the callback that confirms the account.
For owners of vacant land
The alert gives owners two steps. One is to check whether the county recorder offers a notification service that sends an email or text when a document is recorded. The other is to review the title insurance policy, including any post-policy protection.
The tax-bill mailing address is also where a buyer following the alert sends the certified letter in step 2. An owner whose address there is out of date never receives that letter.
When the checks disagree
A mismatch between the record and the seller holds the deal until someone explains it in writing.
- Tell the title company or closing attorney by phone.
- Keep the findings from the seller. An impostor who learns which check failed can plan around it with the next buyer.
- Report the attempt at ic3.gov with every name, email address, phone number and bank account given, and the names of any attorneys or brokers involved. Those are the details the alert asks for.
For money that has already moved, the first hour after a wire goes to the wrong account starts with the call to the sending bank.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, "Protect Your Property from Illegal Sales Through Parcel Owner Impersonation," public service announcement I-061626-PSA, June 16, 2026. ic3.gov
- US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, "Nigerian National Sentenced to Federal Prison for Fraud Scheme," press release, April 7, 2025 (case 24-cr-80084). justice.gov
- American Land Title Association, "Red Flags and Tips to Help Prevent Seller Impersonation in Real Estate," May 9, 2023. alta.org