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Complete Story
06/16/2026
Protect Your Property from Illegal Sales Through Parcel Owner Impersonation
FBI Alert Number I-061626-PSA
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning the public about an identity theft scheme wherein criminals impersonate the owners of vacant property parcels and attempt to illegally sell the property parcels without the owner’s knowledge or consent.
The Scam
- Phase 1 Landowner Impersonation
- Criminals create fake identifications (drivers licenses and/or U.S. passports), Outlook email addresses, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) generated phone numbers and use them to impersonate landowners. Criminals can obtain property parcel owner’s personally identifiable information through county or state public websites, data brokers, stolen account information, phishing schemes, or purchased from the dark web or hackers.
- Phase 2 Contact with Realtors and Title Companies
- Criminals contact a local realtor and title company, pose as the property parcel owner, and draft property-related contracts to market and sell the vacant property parcels. In one instance, a fictious deed was used to further substantiate the impersonation and convince realtors of the validity of the sale.
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