INDIANAPOLIS —
Scammers can quite literally scam you out of house and home. Although rare, home title fraud does happen and there are plenty of free ways Indiana homeowners can keep an eye out for it.
Here's what you need to know.
What is home title fraud?
Home title fraud is when a person transfers your deed or title to their name without you knowing. Meaning they scoop your property right out from under you using forged documents.
The Better Business Bureau said scammers will sometimes choose a second home, rental or vacant house.
Once the scammer becomes the owner, they can use your equity to get loans or sell the house.
Does it happen often?
Identity theft expert Carrie Kerskie, president of Kerskie Group, said title theft is not common in her experience.
"In the 15 years that I've been working with identity theft and fraud victims, I've only seen a handful of these cases," Kerskie said.
While Kerksie said the chances of home title theft are slim, it is a real thing that can happen.
That's why paid services offer to monitor your property records for a monthly or annual fee.
Should I pay for these monitoring services?
While fraud monitoring companies can be legitimate, they are in part offering a service available to the public for free.
"A lot of times when these companies or the services first come out, they are taking advantage of a service that the general population is usually unaware of," Kerskie said.
That service is registering for county fraud or property alerts.
Marion, Hendricks and Hamilton counties are some of the counties that offer property watch alerts to homeowners.
To search for your county, click here.
"You can register your name and if there's any change to the official land records or any official documents, you're going to get an email notification. The sooner you find out, the sooner you dispute it, and the faster you're going to recover," Kerskie said.
If you own a second home in a different state, contact the county recorder's office for their alert system.
To catch fraud attempts, regularly pull your free credit report from annualcreditreport.com from each bureau to check for hard inquiries. Right now, reports can be pulled weekly for free because of COVID. The site is authorized by federal law.
If you are not planning to apply for a loan or a credit card, consider freezing your accounts. Freezing your credit prevents new lines of credit from being opened.