Tucson Association of REALTORS® Launches Campaign to Fight Deed Fraud
Protect Your Title drives Pima County property owners to enroll in a free county system that alerts owners of suspicious activity, as Arizona fraud losses approach $50 million a year
TUCSON, Ariz. (Aug. 10, 2026) — A criminal forges a signature, records a fake deed and sells a stranger’s home or land, often before the owner knows anything has happened. It cost Arizonans nearly $50 million last year, and the only way a victim can reclaim their own property is to sue for it.
Today the Tucson Association of REALTORS® launched Protect Your Title, the first known campaign of its kind aimed at fighting deed fraud, in partnership with the National Association of REALTORS® and Stewart Title & Trust.
“You can do everything right and still lose your property to a forged signature,” said Romeo Arrieta, CEO of the Tucson Association of REALTORS®. “There is no hotline that undoes a fraudulent deed. The remedy is years of litigation to prove you own what was already yours. Enrolling in the county’s free alert system takes two steps and a few minutes. We want every property owner in Pima County enrolled.”
Deed fraud is here. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged $275.1 million in reported real estate fraud losses in 2025, up from about $173 million the year before, and the agency says true losses run higher because many victims never report the crime or never discover it. Vacant land is the prime target: a 2025 National Association of REALTORS® survey found 62 percent of reported title fraud involved vacant parcels, a particular risk in Southern Arizona, where many lots are owned by out-of-state residents who might not learn of a fraudulent sale for months.
“REALTORS® see the damage from this crime up close,” Arrieta said. “Our members have watched families untangle forged deeds on inherited homes and out-of-state owners discover their land was sold without them knowing. Everything we do depends on people being able to trust that they own what they own.”
The campaign builds on four years of TAR engagement on deed fraud. TAR began advocating in 2022 after state legislation requiring county recorders to offer owner notification systems was passed, and TAR introduced the industry’s first deed fraud continuing education class in 2024. Now the Association teaches the one-hour deed fraud course the Arizona Department of Real Estate has required for all real estate licensees since the end of 2024. Since 2025, the association’s multiple listing service has stopped more than 2,400 attempted fraudulent listings through its Property Shield service. On Saturday, Oct. 17, TAR will offer its first deed fraud class open to the public.
Arizona’s new deed fraud law, SB 1479, takes effect Sept. 12. It makes filing false property documents a Class 5 felony, requires photo identification to record documents in person and requires every county Assessor to offer an owner alert system by Jan. 1, 2027. Campaign organizers say the law makes enrollment more important, not less: alert systems only help the owners who sign up.
That statewide requirement is also why the campaign matters beyond Tucson. Every Arizona county must have an alert system in place by January 2027. If “Protect Your Title” succeeds in Pima County, the campaign can work in other counties as those systems come online.
Property owners can enroll now at ProtectYourTitle.org. Enrollment is free and takes just two steps and a few minutes.
