Helpful Links for Mitigating the Risk of Title Fraud

There is a way to help protect yourself from home title hackers. Several metro Denver Counties offer a free service if you register. This service notifies you via email if your name comes up to record a deed. The catch is, that you need to sign up with your name and any variations of your name, so they can email you.

Why is this important? Sometimes bad people do bad things. In my career, I’ve had several instances where unbeknownst to me or others involved someone poised as a person they weren’t.

Once a seller brought his girlfriend to sign instead of his wife. His deception was not uncovered until a month or so later I got a call from his wife asking about where her closing funds were! I was the selling agent for the buyer of the house. Luckily, my client had Title Insurance. I think the hubby did a little time behind bars!

Another time I received a call from a lady who had “inherited” a house. That was a lie, she had deceived the court (successfully) and was assigned as the executor to sell the property. It was a weird experience for me because when I told her how much the home should sell for, she wanted it to sell “quickly” and asked that I reduce the price by $100,000! (That’s not a typo!) Of course, no seller ever said that to me, and when she said it the hairs on the back of my neck went up. I knew something was out of place. A few days later when the title company required a copy of the will and other documents, she demanded that I sell the property without Title Insurance.

LOL

No.

The next day I was able to locate the actual TRUE executor in Texas. Whew!

Last I heard the law was looking for the lady who was a fraud.

There’s much more to these stories, but you get the drift.

It’s up to you to protect yourself as best you can. There are so many people out there who would rather spend their time figuring out creative ways to defraud someone than doing useful work.

Back to my original message, the following counties in Metro Denver have created a way for you to be notified if anyone is trying to use your name to record a change in property. It’s easy, so go sign up!

Adams http://recording.adcogov.org/LandmarkWeb/FraudAlert Arapahoe https://www.arapahoeco.gov/your_county/county_departments/clerk_and_recorder/recording/fraud_detection.php Boulder https://bouldercounty.gov/records/recording/fraud-sleuth/ Broomfield https://selfservice.broomfield.org/web/fraudGuard/disclaimerPage Denver https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Office-of-the-Clerk-and-Recorder/find-records/sign-up-for-fraud-sleuth Douglas https://www.douglas.co.us/recording/recording-activity-notification-fraud-alert/ Jefferson and Larimer Counties DO NOT currently have an automatic notification service. El Paso County states the following on its website (no sign-up required): “The property owner will be notified when the exact name on public records is listed as a Grantor or Grantee. This will provide an early warning system that allows the property owner to take action if they believe fraudulent activity has occurred with their property.

FYI if you own LAND, don’t forget to contact the county where it is to see if you can get these same notifications. I’ve been advised the Land Scams are the #2 fraud after Wire Fraud Scams. Do the bad guys ever rest?

Thank you to Brette Teasdale of Heritage Title for providing these links. Brette’s company was the Title Company instrumental in helping find the rightful executor of the property that was almost defrauded a few years ago.