Thursday, January 28, 2016

County Recorders' Offices Continue Campaign To Protect Property Owners From Deed Snatching Rackets

In Weymouth, Massachusetts, the Weymouth News reports:
  • Continuing his efforts to protect homeowners against dishonest individuals, Nolkford County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell recently spoke about the availability of a free, online consumer notification service offered by the registry to protect Norfolk County property owners against fraud.

    “The FBI has reported that property and mortgage fraud is one of the fastest growing white collar crimes in the United States,” said O’Donnell. “Multiple jurisdictions across the country have reported individuals recording fraudulent documents and making it appear like they own another person’s home or property. While we have been fortunate that this problem has not revealed itself here in Norfolk County, I want to make sure my office is proactively and vigorously protecting consumers.”

    Any owner of real property in the 28 communities comprising Norfolk County can sign-up for the consumer notification service free of charge by doing the following: Go to the registry’s website, norfolkdeeds.org, and click on the consumer notification alerts button to complete the initial registration. From there, follow the remaining sign-up instructions.

    Once you have signed up for the service, each subscriber will be able to input two names, individual or business, and the corresponding city or town in Norfolk County for monitoring. They can monitor their real estate for such activities as changes in deeds, mortgages, nonmortgage liens, homesteads or other land documents that might be recorded against the property.