Riley County commissioners approved a Notary Fraud Alert service Dec. 4 to help notaries detect and respond rapidly to fraudulent recordings using forged notary credentials.

Amy Mangos, Register of Deeds, proposed offering the free subscription through Fiddler Technologies so local notaries can receive daily, weekly or monthly summaries of recorded documents bearing their names. "This would be a free subscription service to notaries," Mangos said. She told the board the county would pay a one-time licensing and setup fee of $8,000 and an ongoing annual maintenance fee listed in materials as $17.50, with funding coming from registered-deeds technology funds so no additional county funds were requested.

Mangos said the tool complements the office's existing property-fraud alerts for residents and would allow notaries to compare recorded documents to their logbooks and detect impersonations earlier. Commissioners moved and seconded the service agreement; a voice vote approved the measure.

The Register of Deeds will index notary names for alerts and provide sign-up information for notaries. Officials said the service does not prevent fraud but provides an early-warning tool that can reduce the time between a fraudulent filing and a notary's detection and response.