Reviewed June 2026 by the FrontierAcre team
Land sales are a favourite target for fraud: the value is high, the owner is often out of state, and the parties never meet. The good news is the red flags are consistent, and a proper closing protects you.
If you are selling a piece of land, especially one in another state, it is right to ask whether a buyer is real. The reassuring part is that a legitimate land sale runs through a neutral, licensed closing, and the scams almost always show the same tells. Learn the tells and you can sell with confidence, to us or to anyone.
This is not rare. In 2024, business email compromise, the scam behind most real estate wire fraud, drove about $2.77 billion in reported losses across more than twenty one thousand incidents, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. When victims reported quickly, the FBI's Recovery Asset Team managed to freeze the fraudulent transfer in roughly two thirds of cases, which is exactly why knowing the red flags before you sell matters.
Money flows to you, never from you. You should never pay a fee, a deposit, a tax, or a wire of any kind in order to receive your sale proceeds. A real buyer's money is what funds the deal. The moment someone asks you to send money to get your money, it is a scam, every time.
They avoid a licensed, independent closing. A real buyer is happy to close through a licensed title company or closing attorney. A scammer wants to keep the deal off to the side.
A fee to release your funds. Any request for a processing fee, release fee, tax payment or deposit before you can be paid is the core of the con.
An offer that is too good, with urgency. A price well above market paired with pressure to act now is bait. Slow down.
Email only, and last minute wire changes. A buyer or agent who only deals by email and then sends new wire instructions at the last minute is the classic business email compromise pattern.
Overpayment and refund. A check for more than the price with a request to refund the difference. The check later bounces and your refund is gone.
Reluctance to put anything in writing, or requests for your bank login, full Social Security number or other sensitive details by email.
A licensed, independent title company holds the buyer's funds in escrow and only releases them once the deed is recorded in your county. You are not relying on the buyer's honesty, you are relying on a regulated neutral party and the public record. Verify the title company yourself: look up its license with the state, and call it using a number from its official website, not a number or link sent to you in an email.
The most expensive land scam is wire fraud. Criminals spoof the email of a title company, agent or buyer and send fake wire instructions, or quietly change real ones. Defend against it with one habit: confirm every wire instruction, and any change to one, by phone, using a number you looked up independently. Never trust banking details that arrive by email alone.
Check for a registered legal entity you can look up. Insist the sale closes through a licensed, independent title company or attorney. Require the offer in writing. Confirm there is never a request for money up front. A buyer who passes all four is operating the way a real one does.
FrontierAcre is the trading name of FrontierAcre LLC, a company registered in Delaware. Every sale we make closes through a licensed, independent title company that holds the funds and records the deed. We put the offer in writing. You pay nothing to get an offer, and we will never ask you to wire money to receive your proceeds. If anyone claiming to be us ever does, it is not us.
The closing, the by owner route, and the terms.
What owners ask us most on this.
Yes, when the sale closes through a licensed, independent title company or closing attorney. That neutral party confirms clean title, holds the money in escrow, and records the deed, so you are protected by the process rather than by trusting the buyer.
Look for a registered legal entity you can verify, a willingness to close through a licensed title company, a written offer, and no request for any money up front. A real buyer passes all four without hesitation.
No, never. In a real sale the money flows to you. Any request to pay a fee, deposit or tax in order to get paid is a scam, no matter how official it sounds.
Wire fraud through a spoofed email is the costliest, where a fake or altered wire instruction reroutes funds. The overpayment scam, a check for more than the price with a request to refund the difference, is also common.
Confirm every set of wire instructions, and any change to them, by phone using a number you found yourself, not one sent in an email. Never rely on banking details that arrive only by email.
Answer a few quick questions, add a photo or plat if you have one, and we come back with a written, no obligation cash offer, usually within one working day.
A few quick steps. Parcel, size, location, a photo if you have one, then where to send the offer.
