Our Mission
The Problem We Set Out to Solve
Real estate fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in America. Deed fraud, wire redirect scams, title theft, and rental fraud cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars every year — and the tools to fight back were nowhere near the people who needed them most.
Before Home Fraud Defense™, there was no national, searchable database where a homeowner, agent, title officer, or investor could check a property's fraud history in seconds. County recorder offices are siloed by jurisdiction. The FBI IC3 accepts reports but publishes nothing searchable. State attorney general databases cover single states. No one had built a unified, national resource. We built one.
And we built it for everyone — not just homeowners. The fraud targeting real estate transactions reaches renters who lose deposits to fake listings, buyers who wire funds to spoofed escrow accounts, sellers whose identities are cloned, and investors who close on stolen titles. Our proprietary, trademarked platform is free for every consumer in that ecosystem. No account. No ownership. No barrier to protection.
Arizona Is Ground Zero — And We're the Expert on the Ground
Arizona has seen over 65 deed fraud complaints in a 20-month period, bipartisan legislation (HB 2080, SB 1479) advancing to stiffen penalties and add identity verification requirements, and the Arizona AG's office actively prosecuting equity-stripping schemes. Home Fraud Defense™ is the only ADRE-approved fraud education provider with free tools available to every homeowner in the state — and an organization that partnered directly with Scottsdale Police to stop an active fraud ring before Arizona's landmark deed fraud legislation was enacted.
Founder
John Rowan — The REALTOR® Who Built What Was Missing
John Rowan is a licensed Arizona REALTOR®, former commercial pilot, and former federal GSA fraud mitigation contractor based in Phoenix. He is the founder of Home Fraud Defense™ (homefrauddefense.org) and principal of Momentum Brokers LLC.
John's path into real estate fraud prevention didn't begin in a classroom — it began when fraudsters forged a homeowner's deed without their knowledge and then called John, posing as the owners, to sell him the stolen property. He recognized the scheme. Instead of walking away, he worked directly with Scottsdale Police to expose it. The sting resulted in arrests — and revealed how little protection existed for homeowners when fraud actually happened: county offices were reactive, law enforcement lacked the tools to move fast, and there was no centralized resource to check a property's fraud history.
"Fraudsters had stolen a homeowner's deed without their knowledge — then they called me, posing as the owners, trying to get me to purchase the stolen property. I recognized the scheme. Instead of walking away, I worked with Scottsdale Police to set up a sting. The arrests proved the fraud could be stopped — but it also made clear there was no system to prevent the next victim. That's why I built this platform."
That sting operation — coordinated directly with Scottsdale Police — identified and stopped a $1M+ deed fraud ring operating across the Phoenix metro, and became one of the first successful law enforcement stings of its kind in Arizona targeting deed fraud. It also became the founding case study behind every tool, every certification module, and every alert feature built into the Home Fraud Defense™ platform.
Today, John holds ADRE approval as a certified real estate education school operator (School #525-9010) and is an Arizona registered state vendor providing fraud prevention curriculum to real estate professionals, title officers, financial service providers, and legal professionals. He serves as an instructor for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council (APAAC), delivering continuing legal education on real estate fraud directly to Arizona prosecutors — a rare credential that positions Home Fraud Defense™ at the intersection of law enforcement, legal education, and consumer protection.
John's background as a former commercial pilot and federal contractor brings operational precision and systems-level thinking to the fraud prevention field. That same discipline shapes how the HFD™ platform was architected: the HFD Fraud Scan search and education toolkit, the HFD Registry, the Property Visibility Check public-records exposure report, and the HFDCP™ certification were all designed to work as an interconnected system — not a collection of disconnected tools.
Recognition & Authority
ADRE-Approved. Industry-Recognized. Professionally Accountable.
Home Fraud Defense™ is an ADRE-approved real estate fraud education school (#525-9010), an APAAC-certified CLE provider for Arizona prosecutors, and an ARELLO Affiliate Member. Class sponsorships have included Fidelity National Title and Old Republic Title.
Proprietary Platform
Built to Stay Ahead of Fraud.
Free for Every Consumer.
Every tool on this platform is proprietary, trademarked, and free to use. No other organization offers this combination — purpose-built for anyone who could be targeted by fraud in the real estate ecosystem: homeowners, renters, buyers, sellers, investors, and the professionals who serve them.
Free instant search of any U.S. property's deed, ownership, and lien history — directly from county recorder data. Paired with education on enrolling in your county recorder's free document-alert program, the authoritative real-time source for any new filing recorded under a name you register (alerts are name-based, so register every name on the title).
Free public-records exposure report generated automatically for every property search. Surfaces the five signals criminals look for — ownership records, equity position, occupancy signals, marketplace visibility, and contact discoverability. Exclusive to HFD™ — no other platform offers this report.
158M+ US properties across all 50 states — deed ownership, transfer history, assessment records, and parcel data sourced directly from county recorder offices. The backbone of every search, score, and alert on the platform.
The first national, searchable database of reported real estate fraud — submitted by verified agents, title companies, buyers, and homeowners, moderated before publication. A community-powered intelligence layer no government database provides.
The Home Fraud Defense Certified Professional designation — awarded to agents, brokers, title officers, and attorneys who complete ADRE-approved curriculum. The credential that signals an agent has been trained to recognize fraud patterns and walk clients through their county recorder's free document-alert program.
Reviews suspicious emails, wire instructions, documents, and URLs in real time. Returns an AI-assisted red-flag pattern checklist — phishing language, possible domain spoofing, wire-redirect signals, and social-engineering tactics targeting buyers, sellers, and renters — for you to verify before money moves.
Data & Technology
Where Our Data Comes From
We use only licensed, verified data sources. Every search, score, and alert is powered by real property data — not estimates, scrapes, or unverified feeds.
HFD Fraud Scan Property Data
Covers 158M+ US properties across all 50 states. Deed ownership, transfer history, assessment records, and parcel data — sourced from county recorder offices and updated regularly.
HFD Registry
A crowdsourced, moderated database of reported real estate fraud. Entries submitted by verified agents, title companies, buyers, and homeowners — reviewed before publication. The first national searchable database of its kind.
AI Property Visibility Check Engine
Every deed search generates a proprietary Property Visibility Check — an AI-powered visibility report built on equity risk, absentee ownership, mortgage coverage, title exposure, and rapid transfer pattern flags. Exclusive to HFD™.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common Questions About Home Fraud Defense™
From credentials to data sources, here are the questions we hear most from consumers, homeowners, renters, buyers, investors, agents, and title professionals.
Start Now — It's Free
Protect Yourself.
Protect Your Property.
Run a free deed search, check any property's Property Visibility Check, scan a suspicious email or wire instruction — no account, no ownership, no barrier. Real protection for every consumer, right now.
Data Accuracy Notice: Home Fraud Defense™ is an informational and investigative resource — not a substitute for a full title search, legal advice, or title insurance. Property data is sourced from county recorder offices via HFD Fraud Scan and may have a lag of 30–90 days depending on the county. Registry entries are community-submitted and reviewed but may not reflect official legal findings. The absence of a fraud record does not guarantee a property is free from fraud or encumbrances. Always consult a licensed title company and real estate attorney before completing any transaction. ADRE School #525-9010 approval covers real estate continuing education curriculum; it does not constitute endorsement of specific commercial products or services by the Arizona Department of Real Estate.