Home Title Theft

cws80us

cws80us

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What are thoughts on this? Endless annoying commercials proclaiming how easy it is and basically giving instructions on how to do it. Seems preposterous to me. A scam to get you to pay for "Home Title Protection". If there is such a flaw that allows this to occur, then why haven't steps been taken to fix the to problem at the root level instead of requiring you to pay some 3rd party to monitor to do it? Credit card companies will immediately alert you if there is suspicious activity on your card, but someone can just steal the deed to your house and take our loans against it with no red flags being raised. I'm calling BS on this.
 
Someone needs to sue the state recording dept just like they need to sue the banks that issue credit cards and loans to criminals impersonating you. It's their fault for being incompetent. I suspect the lawyers don't because they can make more money if this type of thing is widespread.
 
It's just like any other warranty or insurance, however, this one is far more of a scam IMO. It's designed to make money, and they are even further protected because any potential claim will likely bring in a lawsuit against a title company anyhow. To explain, anyone can forge a signature or deed. This has been around for ages long before this "title lock" style of insurance has been around. Title insurance has existed long before this as well. If someone is pretending to be you and selling your property in a transaction through a title company, there is recourse on the title company. If a deed is forged prior to the transaction through the title company (the seller in this transaction isn't really the owner - the owner's interest was transferred via a forged deed), the recourse is still on the title company. On the off chance that there isn't a title company involved and the final buyer just gives the scammer the money directly, the buyer will be the one shit out of luck as any court would rule for the property to be transferred back to the owner.

Many Recorder's Offices have free services to alert you whenever a transaction happens on your property.
 
Title fraud is a real thing and there's been instances of it happening. Too many town/city clerks have been filing title changes without verifying the authenticity of the request as signatures on those documents may well been forged. Many of these jurisdictions do recommend a Lifelock type service that alerts the homeowner of any changes to title status so that any that seem fraudulent can be blocked.
Having title insurance is strongly recommended as well!
 
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It is the golden age of scams and fraud. They have never gotten away with more and there has never been more at every level.

We need to enforce serious penalties on scammers. If you steal a pension fund for example they should do the death penalty. If you scam old people, 50 years in jail. Etc.

If you’re a politician and you bet on stocks you have an interest in? Banished from the kingdom/death penalty
 
ChiggerNuts said:
Title fraud is a real thing and there's been instances of it happening. Too many town/city clerks have been filing title changes without verifying the authenticity of the request as signatures on those documents may well been forged. Many of these jurisdictions do recommend a Lifelock type service that alerts the homeowner of any changes to title status so that any that seem fraudulent can be blocked.
Click to expand...

The title lock industry charges around $20 a month which is crazy. The likelihood of it happening to you and you not having recourse is ridiculously slim. The one who is likely to lose the money is the one who purchased from the scammer, not the person who had "title stolen" from the scammer.
 
Oblivian said:
The title lock industry charges around $20 a month which is crazy. The likelihood of it happening to you and you not having recourse is ridiculously slim. The one who is likely to lose the money is the one who purchased from the scammer, not the person who had "title stolen" from the scammer.
Click to expand...
True and title insurance (which is required by mortgage lenders) is the true protection against scams and any disputes of title ownership, but subscribing to an alerting service offered by many jurisdictions is another option for peace of mind.
 
ChiggerNuts said:
True and title insurance (which is required by mortgage lenders) is the true protection against scams and any disputes of title ownership, but subscribing to an alerting service offered by many jurisdictions is another option for peace of mind.
Click to expand...

Agreed - those are free too (at least around here)

We actually had a legit attempt come through our office. Scammer was clearly targeting properties where the owner was in another state. This was farmland he posted for sale on facebook in the county FSBO page. He obviously made a fake profile using the seller's name and secured a purchase agreement. Someone caught wind of it and called the actual owner ahead of time.

What is far more scary than title theft is the amount of wire fraud. The sending of fake wire instructions rerouting to a scammers bank account is far more common.
 
Oblivian said:
Agreed - those are free too (at least around here)

We actually had a legit attempt come through our office. Scammer was clearly targeting properties where the owner was in another state. This was farmland he posted for sale on facebook in the county FSBO page. He obviously made a fake profile using the seller's name and secured a purchase agreement. Someone caught wind of it and called the actual owner ahead of time.

What is far more scary than title theft is the amount of wire fraud. The sending of fake wire instructions rerouting to a scammers bank account is far more common.
Click to expand...
With land records being public info this makes attempts like this pretty easy to pull off so alert town clerks and others who may know the owner are one good way to stop this from going through. If owner also had an alert placed, then owner would been alerted of the attempt and able to act on that.

In addition signatures are easily forged, but if an actual copy of the owner's signature is on file most of these can be rejected for invalid signature.
 
ChiggerNuts said:
Title fraud is a real thing and there's been instances of it happening. Too many town/city clerks have been filing title changes without verifying the authenticity of the request as signatures on those documents may well been forged. Many of these jurisdictions do recommend a Lifelock type service that alerts the homeowner of any changes to title status so that any that seem fraudulent can be blocked.
Having title insurance is strongly recommended as well!
Click to expand...
The local news reported this bookkeeper stole from her employer's business by using photo deposit for checks that weren't even signed. How fucked up is that? There's no checks and balances.
 
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