As AI gets better (or worse, depending on your viewpoint), seller impersonation fraud is one of the things that we in the real estate industry will probably see more of.

Here’s a pattern to watch for. Someone won’t get on the phone. They want a mail-away signing with their own notary, not one you can verify independently. Contact information changes mid-transaction, or you can’t confirm it through a source outside the deal itself. The price is a little too good. The seller wants to move faster than a normal transaction should. Something about the whole thing just doesn’t sit right.

None of that proves anything on its own. Plenty of legitimate sellers live out of state, sell for cash, or want a fast close. Don’t be paranoid about every file. Just slow down, verify, and do your due diligence. When your gut says something is off, double-check it. Get with your broker or title company.

According to ALTA’s 2026 Seller Impersonation Fraud Study, 59% of title firms reported at least one impersonation attempt in 2025, up from 28% the year before. By April 2026, 45% of firms had already seen an attempt that year, versus 19% at the same point two years earlier. That’s not a slow creep. That’s a spike.

Vacant land is still the top target, but it’s not the only one anymore. Vacation homes, rental properties, farmland, and primary residences are all showing up more often. So are properties owned free and clear, absentee owners, and homes tied to an owner who recently passed away. If you’ve got a listing that fits any of those descriptions, pay closer attention.

What’s changing the game is technology. ALTA found that 87% of firms saw spoofed contact information as a common part of these schemes. And now nearly six in 10 respondents are seeing manipulated voice or video, including deepfakes, used to make the impersonation convincing. That means a phone call that sounds right, an email that looks right, or even a video call where the person looks right is no longer proof on its own.

The answer isn’t fear. It’s better verification and layered verification. Use independent contact channels you find yourself, not ones handed to you. Use notaries from an approved network, not one the seller picked for you. Use knowledge-based authentication that doesn’t rely solely on information a fraudster could scrape off the internet.

Among firms that reported an impersonation attempt, one in four ended up with a paid claim. Half of those firms said their average claim topped $100,000.

Don’t assume someone else is doing the due diligence.

Sometimes the seller isn’t the seller.

Source: American Land Title Association (ALTA), 2026 Seller Impersonation Fraud Study. Survey of 245 title insurance professionals across 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.