Deed fraud is on the rise! Unfortunately, more and more homeowners are becoming victims to fraudsters stealing their homes. If it’s not squatters taking their homes, it’s individuals assuming ownership of their deeds.
According to www.aura.com, deed fraud is defined as the illegal transfer and recording of a real estate title without the knowledge or consent of the legal owner. The nerve!
The way that fraudsters are transferring the deeds is simply by going into the register of deeds office with paperwork and requesting the transfer. Nothing is done to verify the validity of this transaction. As a result of the lack of controls within this process, your home is now owned by the fraudster.
A recent story as reported by ABC News gives insight into how easy someone could steal your deed. Please see the link here:
This is just one story out of many! A quick search online will demonstrate just how frequently this is occurring.
If you’d like to be proactive and try to protect yourself against these fraudsters, please check out the tips included in the video above and/or below.
Some tips to protect your deed include:
- Set up fraud alerts with the county clerks office.
- Set up fraud alerts with the register of deeds.
- Set up alerts for your home address with google.
- Hide your home from being visible online with google.
Sadly, deed fraud will continue in the foreseeable future. Although we cannot predict when or if this will happen to us; What we can do is keep ourselves educated on current trends, take preventative measures and approach law makers to ensure that they are doing their best to protect us.
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Or email at leadmetomyhome@gmail.com
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