About Home Fraud Defense™
Built After a Real Fraud Attack.
Built to Stop the Next One.
During the transaction. And long after it closes.
Real estate fraud targets people during a transaction and after it closes. The public record shows who just bought, what it sold for, and roughly how much equity or net proceeds are in play. John Rowan was targeted by one of these schemes himself, and built the resource that did not exist.
Free for every consumer, in all 50 states. No account. No ownership requirement.
"They called me posing as the owners, trying to sell me a house they had already stolen on paper. I recognized it. Instead of walking away, I worked with Scottsdale Police to set up a sting."
John Rowan · Founder
The arrests showed one case could be interrupted. Nothing existed to warn the next homeowner. So we built it.
Our Mission
The Problem We Set Out to Solve
Real estate fraud reaches ordinary people at the worst possible moment, and it does not stop at the closing table. Deed forgery, seller impersonation, and redirected closing wires can move a family's equity out of reach during a transaction. After it closes, the public record itself becomes the targeting tool.
Before Home Fraud Defense™, the warning was the missing piece. Recording offices confirm documents, not identities. Investigators and prosecutors do serious work on these cases, but by the time one reaches them, the deed is filed or the money has already moved. What did not exist was anything upstream of that: a free national place where a homeowner or a real estate professional could learn what the warning signs look like, and where to report it when something is wrong. We built one. No account. No ownership requirement.
Homebuyers received fraudulent or suspicious communications during the closing process.
Source: CertifID, 2025.
Reported losses across 12,368 real estate fraud complaints nationwide in 2025.
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 2025. The FBI's real estate fraud category also includes rental and timeshare fraud. National figure, not Arizona-specific.
The window in which a fraudulent wire request may be eligible for the FBI's recovery process.
Source: FBI IC3 Financial Fraud Kill Chain.
After the closing table
Fraud does not end at closing
The transaction itself creates the record. Deeds, sale prices, and loan amounts are public, and anyone can read them. A recent closing tells a stranger who just moved, what the property sold for, and roughly how much equity or net proceeds are in play. That is the starting point for a second wave of schemes that arrive weeks or months after the keys change hands: contractor and repair fraud aimed at new owners, fraudulent filings against a property with no mortgage on it, servicing and utility impersonation, and relationship schemes that target sellers holding proceeds, often older sellers living alone.
Home Fraud Defense™ has documented 14 distinct schemes that target people after a transaction closes. Most consumers have never heard of any of them. Post-closing risk has not traditionally been treated as part of anyone's job in the transaction, so no one is assigned to give the warning. Closing that gap is what we teach real estate professionals to do.
Founder
- ARELLO Affiliate MemberAssociation of Real Estate License Law Officials
- Certified Distance Education InstructorIDECC and ARELLO · CDEI
- Associate MemberAssociation of Certified Fraud Examiners
- Approved Real Estate SchoolArizona Department of Real Estate · License #S25-0019
- CLE Instructor, APAACContinuing legal education for prosecutors
- Guest LecturerArizona State University, W. P. Carey School of Business
- Licensed REALTOR®More than 25 years in the real estate industry
- FAA Airline Transport PilotFormer Certified Flight Instructor
- Founding caseForged deed investigation worked with Scottsdale Police
John Rowan: The REALTOR® Who Built What Was Missing
John Rowan has spent more than 25 years in the real estate industry and is a licensed REALTOR® based in Phoenix. He holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate, is a former Certified Flight Instructor, and worked as a federal GSA fraud mitigation contractor. He is the founder of Home Fraud Defense™ (homefrauddefense.org).
John's path into real estate fraud prevention did not begin in a classroom. It began when fraudsters forged a homeowner's deed, then called John, posing as the owners, to sell him a property they had already stolen on paper. He recognized the scheme. Instead of walking away, he worked directly with Scottsdale Police to expose it.
The case led to arrests. It also showed him where the real gap was. The forgery was caught because one licensee happened to recognize what he was looking at. The homeowner had no idea anything had happened to their property, and nothing in the transaction process was designed to catch it any earlier. That is the gap Home Fraud Defense™ was built to close.
"Nobody in that transaction was trained to catch it. I happened to be. That is not a system, that is luck, and luck is not a defense."John Rowan · Founder, Home Fraud Defense™
That case, worked with Scottsdale Police, centered on a forged deed used to market a property the owners had never agreed to sell. It became the founding case study behind the tools, the curriculum, and the alerts built into the platform.
Home Fraud Defense™ is an ARELLO Affiliate Member, and John holds the Certified Distance Education Instructor (CDEI) designation through IDECC and ARELLO, the bodies that set distance education standards for real estate licensing across North America. He is an Associate Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
The curriculum runs on regulator-approved education. Home Fraud Defense™ is approved as a real estate school by the Arizona Department of Real Estate (License S25-0019) and is listed on azre.gov as a consumer fraud resource. John has taught continuing legal education on real estate fraud for prosecutors through APAAC, and is a guest lecturer at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business. That work sits where prosecution training, licensing education, and consumer protection meet.
Beyond the classroom, John publishes fraud intelligence for the industry, including a numbered Broker Fraud Alert on emerging schemes, periodic fraud trend briefings, and a free state-by-state guide covering where consumers and professionals can report real estate fraud in all 50 states. The Home Fraud Defense™ tools are free to the public, on the web and through the iOS and Android apps.
John holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate and trained other pilots as a Certified Flight Instructor. Aviation does not treat safety as a one-time lesson. Pilots return to the simulator on a schedule, practice the failures they hope never to see, and are checked on them. That is the model behind Home Fraud Defense™: the Fraud Awareness Notice with its timestamped Protection Record, the Message Scanner, the Contact Lookup, the Wire Fraud Info resource, and the HFDCP™ credential were built to work as one recurring program rather than a set of disconnected tools.
HFDCP™ is a private credential. Not a state license.
What we built
Free tools. One recurring program.
Every tool below is free to the public, with no account and no ownership requirement. None of them scans, confirms, or validates wire instructions. Confirm wire instructions directly with your escrow or title company, using a phone number you obtained independently.
For real estate professionals, the HFDCP™ program teaches the same material as a recurring standard of practice rather than a one-time class. HFDCP™ is a private credential. Not a state license.
Common questions
What people ask us most
Working a transaction that does not look right? Tell us what you are seeing. We read every one.
Protect Yourself. Protect Your Property.
Start with the free tools. No account, no ownership requirement, open to anyone in the transaction.
Legal and data disclosures
Home Fraud Defense™ provides fraud education and awareness resources. It does not provide legal advice, title services, escrow services, or investigative services, and it does not act as a verifier of record on any wire transfer or transaction. No tool offered by Home Fraud Defense™ scans, verifies, or validates wire instructions. Confirm all wire instructions directly with your escrow or title company using a phone number you obtained independently. Property data is sourced from county recorder offices and may have a lag of 30–90 days depending on the county. 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 #S25-0019 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.