TUCSON, Ariz. – William Gordon, a 66-year-old Arizona resident, envisioned building his retirement home on a piece of undeveloped land he purchased decades ago, but in March 2023, a startling letter revealed his 3 1/3-acre property in Tucson, bought in 1999 for $76,500, had seemingly been sold for $200,000 without his consent or any prior knowledge.
The congratulatory letter, sent by a title company, immediately struck Gordon as suspicious. He quickly noticed discrepancies that should have raised red flags for others involved in the transaction.
Gordon recalled, “I noticed the last four digits of the Social Security number were not mine and the address was wrong — the mail shouldn’t have even gotten to me,” when he first saw the suspicious documentation in 2023.
Compounding the shock, Gordon was still making regular mortgage payments on the land and had approximately $9,000 remaining on the loan when he received this bewildering news of the sale, instantly complicating his carefully laid plans for his future retirement due to this fraudulent transaction.
According to Gordon, the celebratory letter from the title company was riddled with peculiar details that, in his view, should have immediately raised red flags for the company; these weren’t just minor oversights but significant deviations from the standard procedures of any typical real estate transaction.
He further elaborated, “There were several really odd things that had been ignored,” highlighting one particularly jarring detail that involved the notary public listed on the documents connected to the questionable sale.
Gordon pointed out that the notary who supposedly authenticated the transaction was located an inconveniently long distance away from the purported signing location, specifically mentioning the notary was “5 1/2 hours away in an entirely different county from where the documents were signed.”
Further review of the warranty deed recorded by the county revealed more inconsistencies. The document, which Business Insider reviewed, showed that the state and county names had been altered.
In a truly bizarre twist, the states of Arizona and Pima, which represent the actual location of the property and Gordon’s home, had been conspicuously crossed out on the documents and replaced with “Texas” and “Bexar,” a county situated roughly 900 miles away from Tucson where Gordon’s land is rightfully located.
Gordon was clear about his location at the time the documents were allegedly signed in Texas. “I was not in Texas,” he asserted.
He added that he had means to verify his whereabouts. “I could prove that I was in Arizona at the time that the paperwork was signed by a notary in Texas.”
The individual who impersonated Gordon in the transaction remains unclear based on the information provided. However, the notary stamp on the fraudulent documents indicated the name Penny Davis of Texas.
After discovering the unauthorized sale, Gordon contacted Title Security Agency, the Arizona company that originally handled his title work when he purchased the property back in 1999. The company is now under new ownership, having been acquired by First American Financial in 2020.
Gordon reported that the Title Security Agency quickly recognized that he was not the individual who had actually sold the property, as he stated they confirmed someone was impersonating him within mere moments of his initial call to them.
They then directed him to the Pima County recorder’s office, explaining that this office handled the recording and indexing of documents for the area.
However, the response Gordon received from the Pima County recorder’s office painted a starkly different picture regarding their perceived role and responsibilities in such matters, with Gordon stating the office informed him that they merely record documents and do not undertake the crucial task of verifying their authenticity.
The county office then sent him back to the title company, indicating that verification was not their responsibility in this process.
Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly elaborated on the function of her office in 2023. She told Business Insider that she was unsure why the title company had directed Gordon to her department.
Cázares-Kelly drew an analogy, likening the recorder’s office to a library and explaining its fundamental function by stating, “We rely on title companies, on notaries — which is why they are required to have insurance — because it is ultimately up to those companies to have the safeguards to ensure that they’re dealing with the correct property.”
