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Notaries

Deed Fraud Guard email alerts.  The Philadelphia Records Department is offering an email alert service for notaries public to alert them if their signature and notary stamp were used on a document recorded in its office. Even notaries who live and work in other parts of the Commonwealth may wish to sign up for Fraud Guard to protect their commissions and to prevent fraud. Enrolled notaries will be notified if their name appears as a notary in a document recorded with the Records Department. Notaries will be able to view the electronic document to determine if a fraudster forged their signature and stamp on a fraudulent deed.”

The Division of Commissions, Legislation and Notaries of the Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation administers the duties imposed on the Department of State by Pennsylvania's notary public law, the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts. The Division works on behalf of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to appoint, commission and regulate all notaries public in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For over 200 years, notaries public have been officially recognized by the Commonwealth, with the power to administer oaths and affirmations, take acknowledgments, take verifications on oath or affirmation, witness or attest signatures, certify copies or depositions, and note protests of negotiable instruments. Notaries public in Pennsylvania perform acknowledgments, certifications and verifications for hundreds of thousands of important documents each year. More than 85,000 men and women hold notary public commissions in Pennsylvania.