Somehow This Is Appropriate

The Title Lock Scam

“The FBI SAYS YOU MAY NOT OWN YOUR HOME. Home Title theft is a serious cyberthreat and growing problem that can and will affect you. Save yourself and your home - with TITLE LOCK." 

This is is the typical pitch in a scam that is now seen on national TV and in the new, ugly medium of  “robo-calls.”  We have to qualify "scam" as the promoters of this "service" may do what they say, but in their promotions they have yet to document a case where this has happened.

The “title lock” scam is a combination of terms that sound important, but that present little to no threat to American homeowners. Not only does this scheme solve an unlikely problem not unlike being struck by lightning, but is likekly a scam from the beginning.

When you buy a home one of the fees is for “Title Insurance” for an investigation to show the property in question does not have liens, taxes against it or any document problems.  If a lien is filed with the County Recorder a copy will be sent to the owner of record to be sure the document is authentic to quench any such frauds.  While errors are possible it is highly unlikely errors of this kind ever happen.  As well…

Why is it the phone, radio and TV ads never have verifiable cases cited in their ads, nothing you can verify.  What you see are actors!

There have been attempts at the kind of scam spoken of in these ads, but we have not been able to find a successful one as the clerks in the county offices and the computerized record keeping are very good at reacting to a faulty or criminal filing.

In the event your county officials encounter such a scam it will be handled by the Sheriff office's investigators and the fraud will not go very far.  The fraudsters will be arrested for “Forgery in the First Degree” which can result in a one-to-ten year prison term for the perpetrators.

The capper for this is that had a loan been acquired and title insurance purchased, the insurer would be held liable for the loan, but typically most, if not all, of the money would be recovered as these situations are resolved rather quickly with the guilty scamsters in jail and not eager to add more time to their sentences.  In any case the title insurance company would be liable for such a deficiency.

If there were a deficiency the scamsters would be liable and would be paying it off, with interest.  The “Title Lock” people claim to monitor your documents, meaning the best they can do is tell you that a crime has happened, but the likelihood is that you would already know that anyway from your own county law enforcement people and they cannot do anything about your problem as it is a crime and in the hands of law enforcement.

In the few cases where something like this happens is it usually to an elderly person, or couple, county officials are very empathic with them and act on the case with vigor so it is usually sorted out rather quickly.  In any case it is important to be cautious as well as quick to get in touch with your local officials.  Nonetheless…

The "title lock" services charge $15 a month which seems small and enough people that sign up for such services to keep them active and putting commercials on TV and RoboCaller phone systems.

Adrian Vance