Category: Deed Fraud
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A County Takes On the Con Artists. Will Families Recover Their Houston Deeds?
Houston spans four counties. The most populous among them, Harris County, is dealing with a stunning rash of deed fraud. The county has filed court actions charging a slew of defendants over a wide-ranging scheme. Houston families are now hoping to regain control of their deeds following the move by Abbie Kamin, the Harris County…
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Mortgage Borrower: Is Someone Looking to Take Your Deed?
In a case that has received wide attention, an heir to a home in Queens got an email from the mortgage servicer. It was about an address change. When asked about the letter, the company said someone had paid off the loan. The owner then went to the property and saw workers throwing out his…
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Couple Gets Prison for Stealing 2 San Diego Deeds. (Fort Worth Couple Says: Hold Our Beer!)
A married couple on tourist visas just got sentenced for a high-stakes swindle. It involved selling homes they did not own, then laundering about a million dollars out of the sale.
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Latest From Pittsburgh: More Deed Holders Learn They’re Tangled Up in Massive Fraud Case; Suspects Nabbed
Richard, a senior homeowner, was working with a Pittsburgh agent to sell his South Side property out of bankruptcy. But the Allegheny County property was transferred instead, for $1,000, to a shady LLC. It’s just the latest discovery in the massive fraud case unfolding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Richard had to wind down his business due…
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Where Does Your County Recorder Stand on Deed Fraud?
Deed theft? Mortgage fraud? Yes, they’re among the country’s fastest-growing white-collar crimes. It keeps getting easier for swindlers to create and record bogus documents that manipulate real estate ownership and financing. Allen County, Indiana, Recorder Nicole Keesling spoke out this year about the public trust that comes with being elected to the role. At national…
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In Pittsburgh, a Title Agent Finds Dozens of Local Deed Thefts
Title agent Kelsey Green got a call from a client who hoped to refinance. But somehow, without the client’s knowing, the deed to the Pittsburgh home had been stealthily transferred. Since then, the title agent has found 35 cases of deed theft. All have occurred in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhoods. Allegheny County records show deed…
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Are You Ready for Arizona’s New Deed Fraud Law?
A 2026 law has changed the game for deed fraud in Arizona. The law is now just weeks from taking effect for Arizona deed transfers. Are you ready? The new law targets two steps in a property transfer: Two Republican lawmakers worked in tandem to make sure this bill got the fast-track treatment. Arizona Senator…
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NYC Opens First Office to Fight Deed Theft
It is the city’s first office dedicated to deed theft prevention. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has just formed the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention for New York City. What’s deed theft? It’s the taking of a home by shady paperwork. The culprits falsify deeds and notarizations. Then they record the falsified documents. Additional forms of…
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The Best Laws Against Deed Theft: How Does Your State Rank?
For those concerned about where deed theft is taken most seriously under the laws, the data security firm EquityProtect has the facts. The company’s new Property Protection Scorecard sums up the current status of each of the 50 states and Washington, DC. The equityprotect.com/scorecard webpage ranks states using five tiers. Tier 1 shows the…
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Tennessee Deed Fraud Law Update
If you hang your hat in Tennessee, watch out for a potential law that changes the way deeds are submitted and verified. Somebody nearly stole Elvis Presley’s Graceland home in Memphis through deed fraud. Brent Taylor, a Republican State Senator in Memphis, says such activity is what lawmakers want to “put a stop to.” When…
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Title Thieves Are Robbing the Dickens Out of Homeowners
Richard Helbig is a 75-year-old retired home renovator. Now, Helbig is back to work—as a dishwasher. What happened? He lived in his four-bedroom home in North Carolina for 16 years. He redid the kitchen and bathrooms. He paid off the home loan and accumulated $200K+ in equity. But a couple of title pirates took it…
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Next? Rhode Island Is Now Proposing a Law to Stop Impersonators From Recording Deeds
A new law has been introduced in Rhode Island. If enacted, it will require anyone recording a deed to show government-issued photo ID. County officials would gain the authority to delay recording, or report a suspicious document to law enforcement. The point? To deter would-be fraudsters attempting to take over people’s properties. Deed theft typically…
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New Deed Fraud Law Advances in Arizona
Arizona is fed up with deed fraud. Con artists who target deeds go for “a person’s home, their savings, and the work of a lifetime,” says Representative Selina Bliss. Now, a bill in Arizona’s legislature is poised to better protect deed holders from manipulators who take homes out from under people. House Bill 2080 passed—unanimously—out…
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Texas Says Time’s Up for Deed Hustlers
A wave of real estate scams has prompted action by Texas lawmakers. Real estate theft and fraud are now in the criminal code. Naming deed crimes is part of a growing trend that you might recall from a series of articles we’ve offered on New York’s new law, naming “deed theft” as a crime category.…
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End Deed Fraud! Florida Tests ID Rule, California Requires Alerts
Real estate prices keep rising. A home title is increasingly valuable. For people who specialize in deed fraud, deed records might as well be pots of gold. These smooth operators are on the lookout for properties they can control, sell, or use to obtain loan or rent money. What happened to the days when a…
