Cemetery Plot Resale Scam

Cemetery plots are sometimes resold privately when a family no longer needs a plot purchased years earlier, and this secondary market creates an opening for fraud. A scammer may advertise a plot for sale that they do not actually own, using photos or location descriptions of a real cemetery to appear legitimate, and collect payment for a transfer that will never be recorded because they have no legal title to convey.

Other versions involve selling a plot that has already been sold to someone else or is already occupied, exploiting the fact that many cemetery records, particularly at older or smaller cemeteries, are poorly digitized and hard for a buyer to verify quickly. Buyers may only discover the fraud years later, when they attempt to use the plot and find it unavailable, by which point the seller is unreachable.

Any private cemetery plot purchase should be verified directly with the cemetery's own records office before payment, confirming the seller's name matches the plot's title of record and that no burial or other transfer has already taken place.