In this you-can’t-believe-all-that-you-see world of ours, thieves are now upping the ante, preying on homeowners.
There’s a raft of TV ads these days for home title lock insurance – ads that say thieves can steal the title to your home. But, of course, those ads offer a solution, right? They tell you to run out and buy title lock insurance, which will allegedly prevent home title theft. Stop. Take a breath. It's just a scare tactic.
“First, know that ‘title lock insurance’ is not title insurance,” says Larissa Bungo, a senior attorney at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). “If you’re a homeowner, you might remember buying title insurance when you first bought your house. It protects you against challenges to the title, like a lien you didn’t know about. But ‘title lock insurance’ is different — and it’s not insurance at all. Instead, it’s a service that claims to monitor your deed to protect you against title fraud. You’d only find out after your title got transferred to someone else without your authorization.”
What this really is, is identity theft
Title fraud is nothing more than a dolled-up version of identity theft: someone pretends to be you and, without you ever knowing it, transfers your deed to someone else.
“Title lock insurance (again: not a lock, not insurance) wouldn’t stop that,” Bungo reminds homeowners. She says that if you want to make sure all is good with your title, all it takes is a call to your state’s land records office, adding that some areas even have a free notification program that allows you to sign up for alerts about any legal changes, like ownership of a property.
Want to go even further in securing your title? Here are some other steps Bungo offered that you can take to protect yourself from identity thieves:
Check your credit report. Check your credit report for free through AnnualCreditReport.com. Each of the nationwide credit bureaus lets you get free weekly credit reports online.
Monitor your bills. If you suddenly stop receiving utility bills, that may be a sign of identity theft. If you’re worried, contact your utility company directly.
Get help. If you suspect identity theft, go to IdentityTheft.gov for a free, personalized recovery plan.