As awareness of deed theft has increased, so has awareness of a related crime: notary theft. Technology has made it easier to steal a notary’s identity or seal, but experts are developing ways to combat this fraud.
While there have always been ways to steal a notary’s identity, it has become increasingly hands-off in the last several years.
“Deed fraud isn’t new,” said Bill Anderson, vice president of government affairs, National Notary Association (NNA). “We’ve seen it for years. What’s different this time is the ease with which criminals can get on the internet to locate a notary’s credentials. It used to be that you had to go into a county recorder’s office, physically search for a property, pull up a deed, print it out and then you would extract the notary’s commission information from that document. You had to go to the recorder’s office to perpetrate impersonations of the notary.
“Now, a lot of counties have their property records online,” he continued. “Something that is kind of new is most of the states have their own notary commission databases. Over 40 of the states have something like this. I can go into many of them, just type in my last name and within a couple of clicks, I can see the commission information.”
Anderson noted that in an American Land Title Association survey, industry members said that in 31 percent of seller impersonation fraud cases, the criminal used a legitimate notary’s credentials.
Marc Aronson, president and CEO, Pennsylvania Association of Notaries, noted that copying a notary seal has become easier. He said notaries use rubber stamps, which used to be harder to create.
“Now anybody can make a rubber stamp using a laser or some other equipment that’s out there,” he said. “And I can walk into the recorder’s office with my cell phone and take a quick picture of a notary’s rubber stamp and seal and get someone to make me one. In fact, you don’t even need the equipment. All I need is a graphic artist who has some ability and say, ‘I need a rectangular block and inside that rectangle, this is the language which I need,’ and in a few minutes, it could be done.”
For more from Anderson and Aronson, as well as commentary from Philadelphia Commissioner of Records James Leonard, on this growing fraud and ways to prevent it, read the full story in our Cybersecurity Today in-depth report here.