Arizona notaries must take a thumbprint on deeds from 12 September

Two states legislated against seller impersonation this spring, and both bills reach the coordinator's desk through the same door: the signing appointment. Arizona's arrives on 12 September. Virginia's has been in force since 1 July. Neither was written with coordinators in mind, and both change what has to be booked, collected and explained before a deed is signed.

Arizona: a thumbprint in the journal

Senate Bill 1479, sponsored by Senator Carroll and chaptered as Chapter 31 of the Fifty-seventh Legislature's second regular session, was approved by the Governor on 9 April 2026 and filed with the Secretary of State the same day. It carries no emergency clause, so it takes effect on the session's general effective date, which the Arizona Legislature publishes as 12 September 2026. It passed the Senate 29 to 0 and the House 49 to 0, with a final Senate read of 28 to 1, according to the House majority research staff summary of the signed bill.

The operative section for a signing is a new subsection C of A.R.S. § 41-254: 'If the document to be notarized is a deed, quitclaim deed, deed of trust or other document that affects real property or a power of attorney document, the notary public shall require the party signing the document to place the party's right thumbprint in the notary's journal.' If the right thumb is not available, the left thumb or any available finger is used and the journal says so. If the signer is physically unable to give a print, the notary records that and an explanation of the condition.

Three classes of act are carved out: a trustee's deed resulting from a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure, a deed of release and reconveyance, and a remote notarisation under § 41-263 provided the journal records the signer's identification credential number and the notary keeps the audiovisual recording for at least seven years.

The rest of the act works on the recording side. New § 11-472 requires anyone recording a document in person at the recorder's office or a kiosk to show valid photo identification. The recorder notes the type, name and number on the receipt or in the system, may not keep a copy, and the note is not a public record. Documents submitted by an escrow officer or office, a title insurance agent or insurer, a chartered bank or credit union, an active member of the State Bar of Arizona, or a governmental entity are exempt, which covers the ordinary closing. Section 33-420(E), which already gave an owner a civil claim against anyone who records a document they know or have reason to know is forged, groundless or false, now makes that act a class 5 felony where it was a class 1 misdemeanour. And § 11-1133, the affidavit of legal value appended to every recorded deed, now requires the buyer's and seller's telephone numbers alongside name and mailing address, with email addresses optional.

Virginia: a duty on the settlement agent, with a safe harbour

Virginia's House Bill 163 and its identical Senate Bill 316 were approved by the Governor on 8 April 2026 as Chapters 364 and 365 of the 2026 Acts of Assembly. Most of the act took effect on 1 July 2026, Virginia's standard date. It grew out of the Deed Fraud Study Final Report submitted to the General Assembly on 1 November 2025, prepared for a technical advisory group created by 2025 legislation, whose recommendation that settlement agents verify seller identity in high-risk transactions the report describes as unanimous.

The provision aimed at the closing table is an amended Code of Virginia § 55.1-903(A): 'Prior to settlement, the settlement agent shall exercise ordinary care to reasonably ascertain the identity of a seller of real property.' It then lists seven methods that 'may' satisfy ordinary care: satisfactory evidence of identity as defined in the notary title; multiple forms of photo identification; a written statement from the seller's attorney that they have reasonably ascertained the seller's identity; reviewing land records for the property; comparing signatures; performing a credit check; or asking detailed questions about the property.

Subsection C is the incentive. A settlement agent who uses any of those methods 'shall not be liable for any act or omission resulting from his reliance on such information' in proceeding to settlement and recordation, provided the agent had no actual knowledge that the information was false and the act or omission was not the result of gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

• Every Virginia notary must record the evidence of identity for each principal, and the record of a non-electronic notarial act performed on or after 1 July 2026 must be kept for at least five years, under amended § 47.1-14.
• From 1 July 2027, a first commission requires four hours of instruction and a recommission two hours, one hour of which in each case is on real estate fraud and financial exploitation of elderly persons, under new § 47.1-5.2. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is to have curricula in place by 1 January 2027.
• From 1 July 2027, every circuit court clerk with electronic land record filing must run a free property alert system that notifies an enrolled owner when any document describing, affecting or purporting to affect the property is filed, under amended § 17.1-258.3:1.

The federal frame

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center published Alert I-061626-PSA on 16 June 2026 under the title 'Protect Your Property from Illegal Sales Through Parcel Owner Impersonation'. It describes the scheme in three phases: fake identification, Outlook email addresses and VoIP telephone numbers used to impersonate a landowner; contact with 'a local realtor and title company' to list and contract the parcel; and a request that the sale proceeds be sent to a co-conspirator attorney in another state. Its red flags are the ones a coordinator can screen at intake: a seller who communicates only by email, text or VoIP and refuses to meet in person, pressure to rush and a below-market price, limited knowledge of the property and missing documents, payment requested by international wire or to an account in a different name, and deeds notarised abroad or other unusual documentation. The alert carries no complaint counts or loss figures.

The independent numbers come from the same agency's 2025 annual report. IC3 recorded 12,368 complaints in its Real Estate category with $275,110,419 in reported losses, against 9,359 complaints and $173,586,820 in 2024, and 9,521 and $145,243,348 in 2023. Business email compromise, the category that captures a diverted closing wire, ran to 24,768 complaints and $3,046,598,558 in 2025.

What both statutes do to a file

1. Arizona, from 12 September: tell sellers, attorneys-in-fact and mobile notaries that a thumbprint will be taken at signing, and book remote notarisations knowing the notary must keep the recording for seven years and record the credential number for the exemption to apply.
2. Arizona, every file: collect buyer and seller telephone numbers at opening for the affidavit of legal value.
3. Virginia, now: expect the settlement agent to ask for government identification, a second photo ID, signature samples or a seller attorney statement before settlement, and build seller identity documents into the listing-side checklist rather than leaving them to the signing appointment.
4. Both states: a seller who will not take a call, will not meet, wants proceeds wired to a third party or offers a vacant parcel below market is the FBI's profile. Escalate to the agent and the settlement agent in writing, and log that you did.