Good evening-
I wanted to either give a heads up or ask if anyone has recently been getting texts for signings from people locating you on the NNA? Today I received a text message from someone claiming to work for an attorney operating under an LLC. I asked “how many pages? Type of documents? Pay?” They kept only picking one question and answering the one question, so this back and forth went on for quite a long time. I started feeling very uneasy, as though this was not legitimate. Then the person texting me said they pay via Zelle, I found this to be the largest red flag, I replied “I don’t accept Zelle payments” they proceeded to ask if I take Venmo. I told them since I had never worked with them before I would like to make sure they are a legitimate business, they sent me the name of the business again, I asked for more information since the whole conversation felt very sketchy, so they sent me a link to a website that is apparently for a real estate law firm but it look so much like a template you could creat on wex. I went to Los Angeles county websites and looked for the LLC, no such LLC existed, then I took the name of this supposed attorney and check the California Barr and no such name was registered with the Barr. I politely told them since they cannot send me an agreement or proof of legitimacy I would need to politely decline. The reaction to me declining told me everything I was feeling was correct. It was very much “we are declining you now and for the future and our attorneys are ex DA and state legislators have a good say, owner “ I asked repeatedly for identifiers like names and such, there was one name on the website listed as an attorney (he is not). So I wanted to post this as a caution for either scammers or people with other nefarious intentions. Please be careful out there.
@rrobersonnotary Definitively appreciate your alert. 
Excellent critical thinking skills 
Keep up the Great work. 
So far, haven’t received any texts of this nature.
Thank you for the heads-up — it’s another wonderful example of this community supporting one another.
Thanks for the heads up!
Care to share whatever information you have on this “company”? Names, phone numbers, address, etc. Having more info may help the rest of us make an informed decision.
Btw, insofar as payment via Venmo or Zelle: I’ve had hiring entities use either of those methods. That method makes payment same day as date of service. The most recent that comes to mind was an international builder. Like OP, I did my due diligence and when signing was complete, I emailed them and their accounting department sent payment via Zelle that same day. The caveat here is that my research of this company proved they were, in fact, who they claimed to be.
I won’t list any names because I am still deciding how, who and where to report this. But I will say the company was Sacred Capital Real estate Law LLC. The person who text me was claiming to be an attorney but yet had no idea what agreements were and the verbiage being used was not indicative of an attorney. The above name was not a registered LLC and did not match the name of the business that is registered at the address listed on this phony website they sent me. Just be careful, the whole thing about Zelle threw me off because it was not a same day pay they were looking for and the way that they were incapable of answering basic questions about their business also indicated scam to me. So everyone just be careful. I know we all go to sketchy places to do signings but we should feel confident that the company hiring us is legitimate. Where I am is a large hub for sex trafficking so we need to be extra careful.
Side note that I did not mention was the phone number texting me had to have been on a text messaging app because I tried to call the phone number and it kept saying the call cannot be completed as dialed
I had something similar this past week. In Indiana, Yelp is a big way for contacts. I had one this week that did not want to meet via mobile service , so I offered remote service and they wanted proof of my commission by providing an actual document that I notarized remotely. I told them that I don’t have access to that and they kept being persistent that I show them a document that I have notarized. I felt that they were trying to scam me and reported it. You have to be careful out there these days.