County Clerk advises public on property fraud

The office of the County Clerk is pushing for higher awareness for landowners’ paper records and documents establishing ownership of property after releasing a public service announcement.

The announcement was issued to directly counter the issue of property fraud; a topic that can affect an unsuspecting property owner due to fraudulent activities.

According to the PSA, property fraud happens when a person other than the landowner records a false document in the county land record office to make it seem like they own the property or home. Several methods are used to accomplish this form of fraudulent activity.

A common method is the title theft of homeowners who have been deceased for some time. The fraudster will target these unoccupied homies and create a fake deed with a forged signature of the deceased owner. They will then obtain a notary seal through either counterfeit means or through a certain lack of diligence by a registered notary. The property thief will name themselves as the grantee and then file the deed with the county records office, thereby sealing the fraudulent documents with the official landowner records.

While it is an easier process for potential criminals to take properties by deceased persons, living property owners can potentially still be at risk whether for their homestead or for a non-residence property.

Texas policies on deed fraud have not made many changes since 2021 when Governor Greg Abbott signed an order to allow counties with over 800,000 people in their population to request photo ID when filing property documents. Colorado County falls short of that number by several hundreds of thousands, leaving potential holes for opportunists to engage in property fraud.

County Clerk Kimberly Menke’s public service announcement brought awareness of a program that can potentially provide some more protection against property fraud and other fraudulent activity with physical documents.

The ‘Property Fraud Alert’ is the initiative intended to increase safety against fraud for deed owners in the county. According to the clerk’s office, alert system “is a notification service that alerts subscribers against the possibilities of fraudulent activity being committed against their property.”

When fraud is recorded and detected by the system, it will automatically send a notification to the deed owner’s personal device advising them of the criminal activity. Residents can choose between text, call or email as the means of receiving their alert.

Sign up for the program is free and can be done by visiting propertyfraudalert. com.