A First in the Nation: Cuyahoga County to Install Two-Factor Authentication for Recorded Documents

Could the party be over for deed thieves in Cuyahoga County, Ohio?

Home to the beautiful city of Cleveland, it will soon be the first U.S. county to offer two-factor authentication for the recording of legal documents. This is a milestone in the effort to stop fraudulent deed transfers.

To explain the forthcoming change, we offer our readers the following Q&A.

What Technology Will Be Used, and How Will It Work?

Neumo, which serves more than 4,500 government offices in every U.S. state, is a “govtech” company — a provider of software used by public agencies. It’s now providing the first two-factor authentication security system for use by a county recorder of deeds.

Deed holders opt into the system. The system will send real-time alerts if legal instruments are filed containing their names, property details, or other identifying details. If anything is filed, the deed holder will receive a text or email asking the deed holder to verify that they are, in fact, filing a document.

The county recorder of deeds won’t record the document unless and until the deed holder says “Yes, I did sign this document.”

Don’t Deed Alerts Already Exist?

Yes, but this one’s a major advance. Right now, many counties in Ohio and other states provide free title alert systems, so deed holders can know whether any claim or transfer occurs.

Cuyahoga County’s deed alert system was a cutting-edge tool when introduced in 2023. It was expressly intended to help prevent LLCs from improperly transferring deeds.

By the time residents get these alerts, the filings have already happened. Yet the alerts matter. They can limit a criminal’s ability to resell the home and move the ill-gotten gains — sometimes out of the country. A quick response on the part of an alerted owner may lead to arrest and, ultimately, to the safe recovery of the deed.

But even more helpful is knowing a deed is about to be transferred. This way, the homeowner can stop the transfer in its tracks. Neumo’s software will let the deed holder simply say “no” to a property transfer attempt.

This system will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Is There a Need for This Technology?

Unfortunately, there is. Today, it’s easier than ever before to record deed documents online. It’s also easy to find and order notary stamps. Counties are concerned about the rise in bad actors exploiting the ease by which a quitclaim deed can be transferred to LLCs, allowing properties to be resold or rented for profit.

Brian O’Malley, the county’s Director of Real Estate Services, says the deed theft phenomenon picked up steam after the 2008-09 mortgage crisis. There are multiple victims in these cases, because shady actors will often resell the homes they steal to buyers who have nothing to do with the fraud.  

The impacts on targeted deed holders are severe. Deed theft deprives homeowners of their home equity and their financial legacies. Those most vulnerable to the crime are older adults, people in nursing homes, minority households, seemingly unoccupied homes or homes in disrepair, and mortgage-free homes in neighborhoods with rising home values.

Read about how quitclaim deed fraud has prompted Boston FBI action, and led to a new law in Maine.

What Prompted Cuyahoga County to Enhance Deed Safety?

The county often hears from distraught residents whose deeds have been targeted. Local officials have plenty of stories about homes being swiped, quickly sold, then resold.

Take a recent case involving the forged signature of a deceased Clevelander. A fraudulent deed transfer was filed with the county in early 2025. The person signing a deed away was, according to the document, a certain Priscilla who actually died in 2014.

The late Priscilla’s daughter, Tangie, was shocked to see a transfer of the family home on East 114th Street, Cleveland. Especially as it was signed by her mother, who was buried 11 years ago.

Tangie’s family home is one of several properties in Northeast Ohio taken through forgeries and fake notarizations in recent years.

So, Who Took Priscilla’s Deed?

The late Priscilla’s family home was quitclaimed into the name of a business: Happy Home Hunters, LLC.

This limited liability company, formed in 2022, is (at the time of this writing) listed as “active” by the Ohio Secretary of State.

One of the company’s key people, a certain Michael Prince, is wanted for multiple deed thefts across Cuyahoga County. Prince pleaded guilty in 2023 to theft and records tampering and is currently the subject of a police search.

How Was This Fraud Perpetrated?

The con artist in this case forged the notarized quitclaim deed. Which raises the question of what was going on with the notary who verified a deceased person’s signature on a deed transfer.

Cleveland’s ABC News 5 found the notary named on the deed. The notary gave the news team his ledger. The book shows that he has never notarized this — or any other — quitclaim deed. Nor did his real signature and notary stamp match those placed on Priscilla’s supposed deed transfer.

So, it appears the bad actor forged an innocent notary’s signature, as well as Priscilla’s.

Why Can’t the County Verify Signatures Before Recording Documents?

Brian O’Malley, Director of Real Estate Services in the county, told Cleveland’s ABC News 5 that trying to verify signatures on documents is not as easy as we might think. County officials are not handwriting experts, O’Malley observes. And they must process about 50,000 transfers each year.

All they can do, says O’Malley, is “confirm it’s a legitimate notary and the license is current and proceed with the document.”

What Will Happen With Priscilla’s Cleveland Home Now?

Tangie is committed to recovering the family’s deed.

“Some people don’t have the wherewithal to fight,” she told the news team. “But I’m going to fight for it.”

Tangie’s efforts may well bear fruit. Recently in Dayton, a cancer survivor targeted by quitclaim swindlers recovered the stolen deed. That home was trashed, though — leaving the victim with a massive restoration task.

But now, Cleveland households will be far less likely to suffer the same calamity that prior victims have had to face.

When Will Cuyahoga County’s Deed Theft Prevention System Start?

The county plans to roll out the new system in early 2026.  

It can’t happen soon enough.