Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deed Fraud

It’s the future! It’s a bubble! AI is the talk of every town, with just about everyone weighing in. Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence has captivated our attention. It’s jumped to the forefront of corporate priorities in just about every sector of the economy.

So, how is AI impacting property deed transactions? One growing concern is the use of AI to manipulate real estate deals and deeds. Artificial intelligence has made the troubling art of deed theft even more sinister. Deed manipulators are clever, computer-savvy, and eager to put leading-edge technology into their stock-in-trade.  

Fool Me Twice? You Must Be AI

Artificial intelligence seems to be a perfect fit for schemers who rely on forgeries, fakes, and impersonations. This is the reason tech-assisted fraud is now squarely on the real estate industry’s radar.

Bad actors are managing to use AI to make robotic calls, construct email scams, and even orchestrate deed transfers. They’re brandishing their advanced computer tools to create false signatures and documents to make a property transfer seem real. They can then submit false documents to the offices of county recorders. Once they rename the title holder, they’ve passed off an impersonator as a legal property owner. At that point, the bad actor might sell the property to an unsuspecting buyer, take out loans against it, or even rent it out.

Scammers are also able to fool people with AI-made agents and sellers.

NBC Miami reported on a title company’s weird experience with a scheduled video call late last year. Someone wanted to transfer property in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The call, ironically, was intended to confirm the identity of the party selling the unoccupied land. The title agents soon found themselves talking to a fabricated seller — someone who had, in reality, been listed as a missing person in another state for years. The video used the missing person’s identity to create a deepfake video.

Deepfakes are computer-generated impersonations. They’re made with computer algorithms that gather images of a person and train the computer model to express itself as that person would — mimicking a distinctly individual human voice, posture, and gestures.

You might think you can spot a deepfake. But these video clips are getting more realistic all the time. As the First American Title Insurance Company’s website says: “For a quick practical tip, perform a reverse image search to check if the image or video has been used elsewhere on the web.”

To do the footwork for a scheme like the one NBC Miami described, an AI tool could efficiently locate vacant homes or unbuilt land in public property records. It could also flag all real estate in an area that’s not financed — properties that could be claimed without anyone paying immediate attention. Scammers also put their online tools to work looking for homes with high equity value. They take out loans on false pretenses and strip the rightful owner of home equity. Scammers want money and AI helps them find it.

AI Enables Computers to Act and Adapt Like Humans Do

A facet of AI is “machine learning” or simply “ML.” This involves digesting information and perfecting responses to it. The more information collected, the better the system gets.

So many details are available online about our property and ourselves. Much of this information is public. It can include appraisals; maps, surveys, and floor plans; transactions, court decisions, and legal instruments.

AI learning models can read them all, integrate them, and manipulate them.

AI avoids repeating anything it does that fails. It constantly builds and rebuilds its responses to specific situations. It continually “learns” to get one step ahead of the typical human response.

Generative AI “generates” text, based on the user’s requests and input. It only takes seconds for AI to mesh collected information into pieces of text of any desired length and style. This means scammers can target more people, more effectively, than ever before. Research at Deloitte indicates that generative AI could cause nationwide fraud losses to grow by 32% each year.

A victim of this high-tech fakery might only learn what has happened much later, when trying to sell, borrow against, or pay taxes on their home. By that time, a deed could be long gone — sold and sold again.   

Reversing deed fraud? It could take a court case. Learn about quiet title actions to restore rightful ownership to legitimate deed holders.

How Do We Foil These Scoundrels Before They Record False Deeds?

Consider the following checklist. Think about how many precautions you do or don’t take when dealing with other people online. These actions will help you lower your risk of AI-enabled real estate fraud:

• If someone calls to ask for personal information from you during a transaction, stop. Call back, to verify the person’s identity. We can no longer assume that someone else’s call is being made by a real person.

• Don’t follow links from an emailed, boilerplate set of instructions. Visit the company’s website on your own accord — not by following a link. Call the parties and verify that they really made the request(s). Note: When fraudsters use AI to create emails, they can enhance the chances of humans clicking on a corrupt link three times over.

• When receiving a voicemail message or an email message (or both) from a financial or real estate professional, do not simply transfer funds according to the instructions sent to you. Call a person who is expecting the funds, just to be sure you aren’t getting AI-made messages and that you don’t fall for wire fraud.

• Be careful when scanning bar codes or QR codes. Don’t type in personal information on a website that you didn’t take the initiative yourself to visit.

• When acquiring a deed, strongly consider title insurance policies for the homeowner (not just for the lender). Ask your title company how to get coverage for pre-purchase and post-purchase deed forgery.

• Check your county’s website and register for automatic alerts about activity on your deed, if offered.

In a nutshell, it’s absolutely crucial to check who’s calling or emailing, to treat links with suspicion, and to look out for fakery in real estate transactions. Deeds.com is here to support our readers with the latest knowledge.

If it appears that a deed fraud has happened, report it to investigators promptly. Your quick response could stop the sale of your home to yet another party.