Property or title fraud is the fastest growing white collar crime in the United States, according to the FBI. I had never heard of it until a fascinating recent presentation by Cindy Stuart, Hillsborough County (Florida) Clerk of Court & Comptroller, last month.
Can you imagine someone stealing your house right out from under you? Well, it is happening through a frighteningly simple process called a ‘quitclaim deed’. It usually happens to properties that are vacant (like a Florida home owned by snowbirds during the summer, for example), but not in all cases. A quitclaim deed is a document that transfers ownership without a sale, and all it requires is a notary and two signatures. That’s it! Your house is no longer your property through a simple forgery. The criminals who stole it can add that address to their driver’s license and other records, which gives them opportunities to create further havoc like taking out a home-equity line of credit, renting it, or selling it!
You would think unraveling this mess should be easy. You actually own the home, afterall. But it is not. It can take months and tens of thousands of dollars to unravel.
Here in Florida, we have a new free alert system (yes, criminals are trying to sell you their bogus alert system now too) that homeowners can sign up for in less than five minutes that will alert you if any documents are filed in your name, stopping this process before it starts. The Hillsborough County (Florida) alert system can be found here. I signed myself up (and my husband). You need to find your alert system and sign yourself up right away!
Here’s a jaw-dropping Fox 13 (Tampa Bay) news story about how someone’s property was stolen (and how the alert helped catch them).
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