By Katherine Brown
NDG Contributing Writer
The FBI’s Internet Crime Report says that there were 9,521 complaints of real estate fraud in 2023. The losses amounted to more than $145 million. In 2022, the FBI reported that there were 11,727 reports of real estate fraud. In that year, the losses amounted to almost $397 million. Real estate fraud doesn’t catch too many headlines, but it is obviously too common to ignore.
To combat these fraudulent types of activities, Dallas County now offers a property fraud alert system to the public. Residents can sign up for the service, and for those that are registered, the property fraud alert system sends an email notification if there has been a document filed about their property.
Dallas County Clerk John Warren says that the purpose of the property fraud alert system is to make people aware of the status of their property, and to make sure that no one has tried to steal it. The biggest problem his office has seen with property fraud is that it happened years ago. When the issue isn’t addressed right away, it takes longer to fix the problem since it’s been so long since the document was recorded with the office. Using the alert system will give residents an early warning about potentially fraudulent activity related to their property.
According to Warren, it’s impossible to know exactly how many property frauds occurred last year in Dallas County, unless people come forward and report it.
“I can tell you that there has been at least 10 people who have come to my office to say that that there has been a fraudulent deed filed against their property,” says Warren. “The statistics is an unknown number.”
This is where the property fraud alert system can help. Using the service, residents are kept in the loop about what’s happening with their property.
Dallas County first implemented the property fraud alert system back in 2009. At that time, there was lots of fraudulent activity occurring, so the property fraud alert system was adopted.
“There’s this organization or a group of people that actually don’t believe in the government, and so they would place liens on property. They would also file fraudulent deeds to secure property from other individuals,” explains Warren. “The reason we did this was because we were seeing a trend of people filing quick claim deeds. That’s one of the primary documents used to commit property fraud. Quick claim deeds, there is affidavit of heirship, and then there’s general warranty deeds. They would go to areas where they see property had not been maintained very well or in poor condition, and they would file a quick claim deed or file a document conveying property from the original owner to themselves. And they would go out and they would get a loan for say, $10-15,000, and it’s actually the true property owner who’s on the hook for that loan because of the fraudulent deed that was filed.”
Warren says that strong measures are currently being taken to safeguard residents’ property.
“We actually have several bills related to property fraud to make sure that we are strengthening the parameters around property fraud and also preventing property fraud,” says Warren. “One of the things that we did in the 88th legislative session – we made it a requirement. If you are an individual and you’re filing a document that conveys property from one individual to another, you’re required to provide us your driver’s license. That’s our way of helping law enforcement track down the individuals who are committing the fraud.
“For every quick claim deed, every general warranty deed, every affidavit of heirship that’s recorded with our office, we will have the identification of the individual that recorded that document. That helps law enforcement. It also deters individuals from filing those fraudulent documents, because now as part of that legislation in the 88th session, we do have the ability to reject the document if someone refuses to provide us with their identification.”
To be eligible for the property fraud alert system, residents must be a homeowner or own property in Dallas County. The law requires that if someone is recording a document about property, it has to be in the county where their property is located. The service isn’t just for the property that residents live in. People who own a business can also register their property as well. Additionally, people can register the property of an older relative if they’re worried about them becoming the victim of property fraud. The cost of the property fraud alert system is free to Dallas County residents.
One of the concerns the Dallas County office has is getting the information about the property alert service out to the public. To help with this, the office has collaborated with the tax office. However, it’s been difficult getting people to sign up for the service. Flyers were sent out informing residents about the service. But the response was low. Only 14,000 people signed up for the service, even though there are over a million and a half property owners in Dallas County.
Warren says that Dallas County residents should sign up for the property fraud alert system because there is an uptick in property fraud.
“They should sign up for the service because property is money, and this is actually them losing control of whatever the value of the property that they own,” says Warren. “It’s also them being caught on the hook for any loans that someone may have gotten using their property as collateral. Then the true owner is actually on the hook for that particular loan. There are two victims. There’s the property owner, and there’s the financial institution that made a loan. So, it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that the property that they own – that has value – actually remains in their custody and in their name.”
To sign up for the property fraud alert system, residents must go to Dallas County’s website, www.dallascounty.org.
