Is Your Home Protected?
Most-Used Fraud Protection Tools
Property Visibility Check
158M+ Properties · Free
See what anyone can find on a US home in public records: who's on the deed, how much equity is in it, whether it looks vacant, and where it's listed online. Free, no sign-up.
No account required · County recorder data
Or get the free mobile app:
See what criminals see about your home, scan suspicious messages, catch fake listings, and verify wire instructions before you send. All free, all instant, for every homeowner.
Real estate fraud protection, powered by Talveras™.
Properties Indexed
Homeowners report fraud during transaction
NAR 2026
FBI IC3 real estate fraud losses (12,300+ victims)
FBI IC3 2025
Home Fraud Defense™ — Dedicated to protecting consumers from real-estate fraud
Homeowners reported a fraud event during closing.
National Association of Realtors 2026
Jump in wire fraud losses from 2024 to 2025.
FBI IC3
Reported real-estate fraud losses across 12,368+ victims in the most recent IC3 reporting year.
FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
Typical window to recall a fraudulent wire — after that, recovery odds drop sharply.
FBI / ABA recovery guidance
In a deal right now? Scan every email and wire instruction before sending money.
Scan a message — FreeEvery Tool · Always Free
The Tools That Protect Your Home & Your Wallet
Powered by Talveras™.
The same tools the pros use. Free for every homeowner.
These tools point you to things worth checking. They're not a legal verdict.
Instant Fraud-Risk Scanners
Property Visibility Check
Search any US property, 158M+ indexed
See what anyone can find on any US home in public records: who's on the deed, equity, whether it looks vacant, and where it's listed. Free, 30 seconds.
Message Scanner
Any suspicious message, AI red-flag checklist
Paste in emails, wire instructions, texts, DocuSign requests, or fake invoices. Get back a plain-English checklist of red flags in seconds. Works on more than just real estate.
Wire Transfer Safety Center
Printable checklist + 3-call verification workflow
Walks you through verifying your closing wire instructions before you send. Includes the three-call workflow, a printable checklist for your closing file, and 72-hour emergency steps if you already sent the money.
Verified Contact Lookup
3 ToolsPhone, email, and link safety in one place
Look up the real phone, email, and website for any business from published directories. Plus link safety checks against Google's threat database. Use it to verify, not as a verdict.
Education / Resources
Senior Protection
Protect elderly homeowners from real estate fraud
Warning signs to watch for, a family-caregiver checklist, and word-for-word scripts for the conversations that stop title fraud, reverse-mortgage scams, and equity-stripping before money moves.
Learn Center
Guides, articles, and fraud-defense education
Plain-English guides to deed fraud, wire fraud, rental scams, and seller impersonation — what each one looks like, how to spot it early, and exactly what to do next. Free for every homeowner.
Fraud Map
County-level fraud density across the US
See where deed fraud, wire fraud, and rental scams are getting reported around the country. Hover any county for live stats and recent reports.
County Recorder & State Resources
Free deed alerts, AG offices, HUD counselors
Find your county's free deed-alert program, your state Attorney General's consumer office, your state real estate division, and HUD-approved housing counselors. All 50 states.
Rental Protection
Rental Safety Checklist
Verify ownership before you apply or pay
Confirm a rental listing is legitimate and the price is realistic before handing over a deposit or application fee.
Listing Cross-Check
Same address, different story across sites
Pulls every place a rental shows up online and flags where the price, photos, or contact info don't match. Fastest way to catch a fake listing before you put down a deposit.
Help & Recovery
I've Been Scammed
72-hour emergency recovery playbook
Step-by-step plan for the first 72 hours after you've sent money or signed something suspicious. Bank recall, FBI IC3 filing, police report, and how to preserve the evidence. Speed matters.
Find a Certified Agent
Search HFDCP™ Certified Professionals
Find licensed real estate agents who've finished ADRE-approved fraud-defense training. They can walk you through your county records and the warning signs of forged deeds and wire scams.
Tools are bot-protected to ensure accuracy. To prevent fraud bots from exploiting our detection tools, scans are rate-limited per day. Need something reviewed right now? Email scan@homefrauddefense.org and a real person will look at it. HFDCP™ Certified Professionals have unlimited access.
The Technology Behind Every Tool
About Talveras™
Talveras™ is the technology behind every Home Fraud Defense tool. It does the AI scanning, the risk-scoring, and the public-records work under the hood, from the Wire Transfer Safety Center to the HFDCP certification course. Built so consumers, real estate pros, and state regulators all use the same engine.
Built in Arizona. Licensed for institutional use.
Why It Matters
Fraud doesn't wait.
Neither should you.
AI has made it easy for almost anyone to run a convincing scam. Home Fraud Defense was founded by John Rowan, a licensed Realtor and former federal fraud-mitigation contractor who helped Scottsdale Police set up a sting that arrested an active fraud ring targeting homeowners. In the first 90 days after launch, HFD tools helped stop more than $30 million in fraud. That number keeps climbing.
- Wire fraud is now the #1 financial crime in real estate
- Most deed-theft victims don't catch it for 12 to 18 months
- A scammer can clone your voice from 7 seconds of audio
- Fake AI-generated emails, voices, and IDs are showing up in real estate now
- Homes owned free and clear get hit 3 times as often
Real estate fraud losses (12,300+ victims)
FBI IC3 · 2025
Year-over-year jump in real estate fraud losses ($173.6M → $275M)
FBI IC3 · 2024 → 2025
Homeowners report fraud during transaction
NAR Real Estate Today · 2026
US properties indexed
All 50 states
How It Works
Five Free Ways To Protect Your Home From Fraud
Home Fraud Defense brings deed search, AI message scanning, wire safety, rental verification, and a directory of fraud-trained agents into one free tool. No account. No fine print. For ongoing alerts on your deed, we send you straight to your county recorder's free deed-alert program, which is the actual real-time source.
Search any US property in seconds
Type in any home address. We pull the live public record from the county and show you what anybody else can see about that house: who's on the deed, how much equity is in it, whether it looks vacant, and where it's listed. 158 million properties, all 50 states. Free, no sign-up.
See what a scammer sees
Scammers don't pick houses at random. They look at the same public records you just searched, and they go after the homes that look easiest to steal. The report tells you which boxes your home checks, why each one matters, and what you can do for free to make yourself a harder target.
Run any suspicious message through the AI scanner
Got an email, a text, a wire instruction, or a DocuSign request that feels off? Paste it in. Our AI reads it and gives you back a plain-English checklist of red flags so you can verify it before you click or send money. Works for real estate scams, IRS scams, rental scams, contractor scams, romance scams. It's a checklist to help you investigate, not a verdict.
Verify rentals and wire instructions before you pay
Before you put down a rental deposit, run the listing through Listing Cross-Check to see if the price, photos, or contact info don't line up across sites. Before you wire closing funds, follow the Wire Transfer Safety Center checklist and call your title officer using a number you looked up yourself, not one from an email. Five minutes of checking has stopped millions in losses.
Sign up for your county's free deed alerts
Almost every county recorder will email or text you any time a new document gets recorded under your name. It's free, and you sign up directly with the county. An HFDCP Certified Professional in your area can walk you through finding your county's portal and reading your own records. The county is the real-time source. You don't need to pay a third party to do this.
Your agent may already be
trained in fraud defense.
HFDCP Certified Professionals have completed ADRE-approved fraud-defense training (School #525-9010). They can help you find your county's free deed-alert portal, walk you through your own records, and spot the warning signs of forged deeds and wire scams. No extra cost to you.
HFDCP™ Certified
Post-Closing Protection
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything You Need to Know About Real Estate Fraud
Deed fraud, wire fraud, rental scams. Here are the answers to the questions every homeowner, buyer, and seller should know.
What is deed fraud and how common is it?
Deed fraud (also called home title theft) is when somebody forges ownership documents to put your house in their name without you knowing. Once the fake deed is recorded at the county, the scammer legally looks like the owner. They can then sell the house, borrow against it, or rent it out while you're still living in it. The FBI calls it one of the fastest-growing financial crimes in the country. Free-and-clear homes, vacation properties, and houses tied up in an estate get hit the most. Most victims don't find out for a year or more, usually when they try to sell or refinance.
What is real estate wire fraud and how does it happen?
A scammer breaks into the email back-and-forth between you and your title company or closing agent. Then, days before you wire your closing funds, they send you new wire instructions that look like they came from your title officer but actually point to the scammer's bank account. The money goes to the wrong place and it's almost never recovered. The FBI says these losses jumped from $173 million in 2024 to over $275 million in 2025, with 12,300 victims, and the real number is much higher because most people don't report it. Always call your title officer to verify wire instructions, using a phone number you looked up yourself, never one from an email.
How does the Property Visibility Check help against deed fraud?
It pulls the live public record on your house from the county and shows you the same things a scammer would look at: who's on the deed, how much equity is in the place, whether it looks vacant, and whether it's listed anywhere online. The report tells you which of those make your home a target and what you can do about each one for free. The most important free thing: signing up for your county recorder's deed-alert program. They'll email or text you the second a new document gets filed under your name.
Is the Property Visibility Check really free? What is the catch?
No catch. Every consumer tool on Home Fraud Defense is free, no account, no subscription. The platform is paid for by the real estate professionals who get HFDCP certified, and by title companies and brokerages who sponsor it for their clients. That's how every tool stays free for the public.
What does the HFD Message Scanner actually do?
Paste in any email, text, wire instruction, DocuSign, or invoice that feels off. Our AI reads it and gives you back a plain-English checklist of red flags to verify before you click or send money. It works on real estate scams, wire fraud, IRS scams, Medicare scams, rental scams, contractor scams, romance scams, anything that comes through your inbox. It's a checklist to help you investigate. Not a verdict.
How do I verify wire transfer instructions before sending closing funds?
The one rule: never trust wire instructions you got by email, even from someone you know. Open the Wire Transfer Safety Center and use the three-call workflow. First, call your title officer using a number you looked up yourself, not from any email. Second, read back the routing and account numbers on the call. Third, confirm the dollar amount and the receiving name. The Safety Center has a printable checklist for your closing file and a 72-hour recovery section if you already sent the money.
How do I avoid rental scams and verify a rental listing is legitimate?
Run the listing through Listing Cross-Check first. It pulls every place the rental shows up online and flags where the price, photos, or contact info don't match. Then walk through the Rental Safety Checklist: confirm the person you're talking to actually owns the place per county records, make sure it isn't already lived in or for sale, and never pay a deposit with a wire, gift card, crypto, or Cash App to a landlord you've never met in person. Both tools are free.
How do I know if my home deed has been stolen?
Most victims don't notice for 12 to 18 months, usually when they go to sell or refinance. Warning signs: getting mortgage statements or tax bills for loans you never took out, finding your house listed for sale or rent online, mail from strangers claiming they own the place, or a name you don't recognize on your property tax record. Run a free Title Search on your address every few months. For real-time alerts, sign up directly with your county recorder's deed-alert program. That's the source of truth.
I just sent money to a scammer or signed something suspicious. What do I do right now?
Move in the first 72 hours. That's where most recoveries happen. Open the I've Been Scammed page for the full playbook. Call your bank's fraud line right now and ask for a SWIFT recall on the wire. File an FBI complaint at ic3.gov within 24 hours (the bank usually needs the IC3 report number to recall the wire). File a local police report. Call the receiving bank directly to flag the account. Save every email, text, and document for your bank, the FBI, and an attorney. Email scan@homefrauddefense.org and we can connect you with a certified pro in your area. Don't talk to the scammer.
What should I do immediately if I suspect deed fraud (not wire fraud)?
Run a free Title Search first to see what your county actually shows on the property right now. Then call your county recorder's office, report it, and ask about a property fraud alert. File a police report. Submit an FBI complaint at ic3.gov. Call a real estate attorney to start a quiet-title action, which is what it usually takes to clear a fake deed. Email scan@homefrauddefense.org and we can connect you with an HFDCP Certified Professional nearby. Every day you wait gives the scammer more time to stack more fraud on top of the first one.
Who is most at risk for deed fraud?
Homeowners who own free and clear are the biggest target, because there's no lender watching the property. Vacation homes, rentals, and anywhere the owner doesn't actually live get hit a lot for the same reason. Houses tied up in an estate (where someone recently passed away) are a top target because scammers watch the public death notices. Elderly homeowners living alone and out-of-state landlords are also hit hard. If any of that sounds like you, run a free Property Visibility Check every few months, sign up for your county's free deed alerts, and consider working with an HFDCP Certified pro who knows the records.
What is HFDCP™ certification and how does a Certified Professional help me?
HFDCP stands for Home Fraud Defense Certified Professional. It's a fraud-defense credential issued through Home Fraud Defense School #525-9010, which is an ADRE-approved education provider. HFDCP agents are licensed real estate agents who finished the fraud-defense course and agreed to a set of client-protection standards. They'll help you find your county's deed-alert portal, walk you through your property records, and spot the warning signs of a forged deed or a wire scam. No extra cost to you. Use Find a Certified Agent to search by state, county, or name.
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Government & Industry Recognition
ADRE Approved Fraud Education Provider
School #525-9010
158M+ US Properties Indexed
County recorder data
Class Sponsors: Fidelity National Title · Old Republic Title
Are you a real estate professional?
HFDCP Certification gives you the credential and the training to be the fraud-defense resource in your market. You'll be ready to walk every client through their county's free deed-alert program and spot the red flags of forged deeds and wire scams.
