Cybercrime has soared during the pandemic, with hacks, breaches and scams hitting unprecedented highs. You know hackers are waiting to pounce while you’re working, shopping and spending time online.
What
you don’t know is that you’re open to a type of theft you’ve probably
never heard of: home title fraud. Victims of this devastating crime have
their homes stolen before they even know what happened.
Simply put, thieves change the ownership of your home from you to them, take out loans and disappear. You’re left with the legal bills and your hard-earned equity is gone.
Just think about all the years you and your family have been working to make mortgage payments. You pay taxes on your home, insurance and even homeowners association dues.
If you’re like most homeowners, you’ve spent a lifetime going to work, paying your bills and saving money. Finally, when your home is paid off, you can rest easy. But that’s when the unthinkable happens.
Here’s how: Your home’s title and mortgage information are stored and readily available online for those who knew where to look. Criminals use this info, and details about you leaked in data breaches, to transfer you off your title.
They forge the paperwork, and either take a trip to the country recorder’s office or simply click “send” to make it official. The majority of recorder’s offices assume the paperwork is genuine, and just like that, your home is no longer yours.
Once they’ve got the title to your home, they can legally kick you out it or use its equity to take out money and live a lavish lifestyle.
How much is your home worth? Have you recently checked? Tap or click here for a few free resources you can use to see your home’s value.
Is
your home’s value your retirement plan? You’ve heard that people get
rich off their homes. If you’ve owned it long enough and live in a hot
real estate market, you could retire on that alone.
You can sell your house and use the equity you’ve built up to buy a smaller home and invest the rest. That dream can be shattered by home title criminals, though.
Once they legally have the title to your home, they can simply walk into a bank and use the equity that you built up to take out a loan to pay their bills. Title fraud happens far more often than you might think. Millions of homeowners are at risk right now.
In a word, no. Home Title Lock is the only company that provides nationwide monitoring and alerts. You may think your bank, insurance, trust or identity theft protection services can prevent home title fraud, but the truth is they can’t.
Don’t think home title insurance protects you, either. That insurance is required by lenders to endure you have a clean title. It protects you through escrow but doesn’t cover future events.
Every hack and breach puts more of your info online — giving cybercriminals more fuel. It’s not just your name, phone number and address, but details like your Social Security number and online financial logins, too.
And did you know your property deed, including your
signature, is most likely online? All you have to do is check your
county assessor’s website and type in your address.
You’ll be shocked to find all your private information about your property is right there for cybercriminals to steal.
Home Title Lock created the world’s largest property records database in the U.S. It now includes more than 6.1 billion records.
Home
title fraud is a terrifying crime. Cybercriminals can easily put your
home in their name then evict you from your home or steal its equity.
Don’t take that risk.
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The Watchdog surveyed the county clerks in Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties. I also talked to the company that bombards us with advertising. I have experience covering this. A decade ago, I told the story of Norris Fisher, who stole 170 homes in Tarrant County (some kind of record) before he was shipped off to prison. So yeah, it’s real. Crooks can forge names and use fake notary public seals and change the ownership of your house without you knowing it.
Retired Teacher Evicted from Her Home
COVID19 Brings New Wave of Cybercrime
The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented access for cybercriminals to prey upon Americans who are shopping, working and doing virtually everything online – from home. The crime is Home Title Fraud. Cyber-criminals, foreign and domestic target our homes. Why? Because they stand to gain tens, even hundreds of thousands by taking over the title to your home. But it doesn’t just stop there. Cyber-criminals can literally have you evicted from your home.
Domestic and international thieves scour online records for homes with equity. It could be the home you live in, your vacation home, a home of an elderly relative, or rental property you own.
Once they change your home's ownership from YOU to THEM, they re-file the Quitclaim Deed for your home with the proper authorities so it appears your home has been legally sold.
They take out personal loans through banks and online lenders using all your home's equity. You likely won't know you're a victim until you start receiving late payments or foreclosure notices.
Click to see if your home's title has been compromised.
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Everything is stored online these days - including your home's title. Domestic and international cyber-thieves target U.S. homeowners equity in their homes. Removing you from your home's title takes just minutes. Then they forge their name on the title document and refile it. Next, they take out loans using your home's equity and stick you with the payments. You likely won't know until you get a late payment or foreclosure notice from several banks.
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