GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's your house and you're paying on it or maybe it's paid for. Either way, it's yours, until it's not. Real estate fraud is on the increase.
“You've got this time we're living in with online housing transactions have created challenges for the systems and consumers to identify these kinds of situations when they come up,” said Jeff Thigpen, Guilford County Register of Deeds.
2WTK asked him about a story out of California, where a lot owner almost lost his property.
He had paid off the mortgage on the property and was about to lose it, but didn’t know it until his neighbor saw the property listed on Zillow and told him about it.
“According to the broker, it was an escrow, a cash-only sale, which requires no funding from banks, so it would close any day”, said Jorge Dance.
He contacted the listing agent and then the police.
“All property information, as far as title vesting is all public information, so there are people that know how to search for this information, and from there all it takes is a little internet research to gain enough knowledge about that person to impersonate them,” said Brian Calicchia, LAPD.
So, what can you do to protect yourself and your home? You can sign up for a free Property Fraud Alert with your county’s Register of Deeds
“Put as many name iterations as you can into the system. That will generate an email that goes directly to them that lets them know if any real estate transaction in our office takes place with any of those name variations,” said Thigpen.
There are commercial groups that claim to safeguard your house title for a monthly fee of $19.99, but Thigpen says don't pay someone for something you can get for free.