Sponsored By: EquityProtect
As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, so do the scams it can enable. The result is an alarming rise in real estate-related fraud cases, with quit claim deed fraud making headlines this April thanks to an alert issued by the FBI’s Boston bureau urgently warning property owners to “take action to protect themselves.”
Quit claim deed fraud happens when a scammer poses as the property owner and illegally transfers ownership of the land’s title without the rightful owner’s consent. They then attempt to sell or mortgage the property, potentially resulting in “devastating consequences,” according to the FBI, which described homeowners who had their property “sold, right out from under them.” Oftentimes, fraudsters will target properties that have no mortgage, are unoccupied, or belong to elderly individuals who may not monitor their property records regularly.
According to the FBI, title theft has cost homeowners millions of dollars. While stats specific to deed fraud are not available, real estate scams in general have targeted 58,141 property owners across the country who reported $1.3 billion in losses from 2019 to 2023, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported.
In its recent consumer alert, the FBI’s Boston bureau said that residents in its jurisdiction – which includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island – reported loses totaling $61.5 million during that same period. It also noted that “the reported losses are most likely much higher due to that fact that many don’t know where to report it, are embarrassed, or haven’t yet realized they have been scammed.”
So how can property owners make sure they are not the next target? Many homeowners think that having title insurance in place will protect their title from unwanted alterations, but that is not the case. Most title insurance does not safeguard against post-closing fraud, instead only covering issues that arise before the transaction’s closing date. And while in some states post-closing fraud insurance is an option, this protection comes with limitations based on the type of property and the identity of the fraudster.
Some counties, alerted to the issue by the local county recorder’s office, have put alert systems in place, but these systems simply monitor the name that is registered with the county. If documents are recorded with a naming convention other than what is registered, then it will not trigger an alert.
The situation has created an opportunity for new technology to emerge that reaches beyond simply monitoring and proactively prevents a property’s title from being wrongfully altered in the first place. EquityProtect has come to market with a revolutionary, patented technology available that combats title fraud by using a preventative approach to locking down your title to ensure that only the property owner is the individual making any changes to a title.
The company offers homeowners a free risk assessment to determine if this advanced safeguard is necessary. Those who are not deemed to be at risk can take advantage of EquityProtect’s free monitoring system, which continuously skims public records, title activity and any other risk factors associated with the property, guaranteeing that suspicious activity will be immediately flagged in real time.
County recorder’s offices nationwide are reporting a staggering rise in quit claim deed fraud, inspiring more counties to flag the issue for homeowners and suggest the use of proactive technology like EquityProtect’s to stop scammers in their tracks.
As title theft continues to surge nationwide, it’s more important than ever that property owners evaluate all the options at their disposal to safeguard their home’s title.
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This article was written by Ryan Marshall, the CEO of EquityProtect.
Read “The Title Theft Baloney” by Larry Light at Forbes.com. I wish AMAC would stop peddling this garbage known as Title Theft.