Title Fraud - Take Precautions

Title theft is a type of real estate fraud where someone steals your personal info and then records a fradulent deed.  With that, and without your knowledge/consent, the thief may then sell or rent your house to someone, apply for a second mortgage/refinance/HELOC (home equity line of credit).  They take the cash and you get the debt.  This exposes the homeowner to possible foreclosure, damaged credit, legal issues and more.

Ideal Victims

• People that own their home outright or have a large amount of equity.

• Absentee owners (also susceptible to squatters).

• Elderly folks could also fall victim to a reverse mortgage fraud.

• People that are not careful to safeguard their personal information. Do you like to answer online surveys?  Stop!  Criminals love to use this to guess passwords and/or get your personal info.  Shred sensitive info before trashing it, including your mail.

An Ounce of Prevention

Title theft is not super common (yet) but can be very costly if it happens to you.  Here are some things you can do to help mitigate your risk:

• Keep track of your mail and go digital if you can. Especially if you're an absentee owner.  If you don't see your tax assessment, for example, call and check status.  Make sure your info wasn't switched.

• Monitor your credit report (Equifax, Transunion, Experian).

• Check into a title insurance policy if you didn't purchase one for yourself when you bought your home. (This is separate from the title policy your lender got.)

• Install security cameras and report any suspicious activity.

• Safeguard your personal information!

• In Georgia, there's a great watchdog service you can register for. It's called the Filing Activity Notification Service from the GSCCCA (Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority).  It's "designed to offer individuals the ability to receive a notification when certain real estate and personal property records are filed with, indexed, and data is transmitted" by GSCCCA throughout the state of GA.  To register:  https://fans.gsccca.org/

Already Victimized?

Contact the credit agencies and put a fraud alert on your file and freeze your credit.  File a police report and create a paper trail.  File report with FTC (www.identitytheft.gov).  Alert mortgage company, creditors and bank, if applicable.  Close any unauthorized accounts.  Change your passwords too.  You may also want to consider getting a new drivers license number.