
The FBI details this further: In addition, as initial mortgage products are repackaged and sold on secondary markets, the sale of the mortgages in many cases conceal or distort the fraud, causing it not to be reported. For most crimes, there's agencies that log each since crime in a detailed report that's then routed to local and national law enforcement agencies for it to be compiled and reported on - but for mortgage and title fraud, that doesn't exist. Why is home title theft underreported?Īccording to the FBI, a large portion of the mortgage industry isn't required to participate in mandatory fraud reporting 2. Referencing another report, in 2010 the FBI reported that an estimated $3.2 billion in losses from home title fraud in that fiscal year alone 1 - those are annual losses that happen each year! To be honest I was shocked an appalled that not only is "house stealing" a thing, but the FBI has been well aware of it since 2008! After forging your signature and using the fake IDs, they file these deeds with the proper authorities, and lo and behold, your house is now THEIRS.Then, they go to an office supply store and purchase forms that transfer property.Next, they assume your identity-getting a hold of your name and personal information (easy enough to do off the Internet) and using that to create fake IDs, social security cards, etc.The con artists start by picking out a house to steal-say, YOURS.Well, I found the answer, and to be honest it shocked me: Property theft is up 6,000% since 2016Īccording to the FBI, this is generally how it works, straight from the FBI archives (in 2008 they called it "house stealing"). So the first question - does home title theft actually happen, and if so, how much? Someone is going to STEAL my home deed? How is that even possible? It didn't make sense to me at first, so I decided to do some research and find out for myself and start out with this question. To be perfectly frank, it seemed like the same type of shady products designed take advantage of old people that didn't know any better. The first time I saw a commercial for home title lock, I was super skeptical. You've seen the commercials and heard the radio ads with high-paid spokespeople, but like everything else in life sometimes it's hard to cut through all the noise to figure out what's really fact, or fiction.


Do you really need home title lock insurance?
