Is Home Title Lock Legitimate?
This is what Home Title Lock says on their website:
Mortgage fraud is the fastest growing white collar crime in AmericaTitle fraud is when a thief uses a false identity and transfers your home’s title to his name. He can take out a loan and stick you with the payments, he can change the title so he inherits your home and even have you evicted from your own home.
Title Insurance Doesn’t Protect You and Neither Does Your Bank or Identity Theft Protection. HOME TITLE LOCK DOES
I have been a consumer lawyer for almost 30 years. During a lot of those years, I did 3500 intakes per year from everyday people with a huge variety of legal problems, and in that time I NEVER encountered a single complaint of home title fraud BY A STRANGER.
I saw cases of home title fraud, but then involved relatives or “we buy homes” scams (usually involving sale/leasebacks), I also saw many cases of mortgage fraud by mortgage brokers in the bad old days prior to mortgage meltdown in 2008:
I would like to see the data that Home Title Lock relies on to say that mortgage fraud is the fastest growing white collar crime in America. Also “Title fraud” and “Mortgage fraud” are not the same thing. There are a whole lot of types of mortgage fraud, and as far ask I can tell, most types went into sharp decline after 2008 when lenders got more picky about their mortgages – and regulators enforced more due dilligence. Title fraud, in my experience is very rare and usually involves confidence scams by no-money down real estate types, Usually the homeowner actually does sign title documents but under false pretenses.
I don’t really do consumer mrotgage cases anymore, but I am in contact with fellow consumer attorneys that do. Most of their time is spent on cases involving improper mortgage servicing (for example: failure to credit payments properly) and improper fees.
Here’s why I think the type of deed fraud Home Title Lock scares people about is exceedingly rare: It takes multiple stages of fraud to pull off, and there are multiple chances of getting caught each time. Let’s look at the initial fraudulent deed. The owner’s signature has to be forged, and there has to be a fraudulent notarization. A pattern of fraudulent transactions involving a single registered notary would be detectable by a state notarization board and maybe a title insurance company. The deed has to be transferred to a transferee who is either in on the scam or is a “straw buyer”. There are lots of scams involving “straw buyers” and they are relatively easy to track. These tra”innsactions almost certainly would have to focus on properties where the deed owner is not in possession. Why, when the “innocent” third party buyer paying money to the scammer tries to take possesion, they will see the real owner. The real owner can defend against the “innocent” purchaser. In short, if your deed is forged, you have the chance to prove that in an action against the person who pays the scammer. The person who pays the scammer, may be able to sue the title insurance company that closes the sale. So I just told you that t the smart scammer will target properties that are not owner-occupied. – BUT THAT’S NOT WHOM HOME TITLE LOCK IS TARGETING. This company is targeting ordinary homeowners who live in their homes. Now at the closing with the innocent purchaser putting up money, the only way the scammer gets paid, the scammer has to present id that is suitable for notarization. You have to generate a fake identity for every deal you close. That’s a lot of work.
Here’s why I think the type of deed fraud Home Title Lock scares people about is exceedingly rare: It takes multiple stages of fraud to pull off, and there are multiple chances of getting caught each time. Let’s look at the initial fraudulent deed. The owner’s signature has to be forged, and there has to be a fraudulent notarization. A pattern of fraudulent transactions involving a single registered notary would be detectable by a state notarization board and maybe a title insurance company. The deed has to be transferred to a transferee who is either in on the scam or is a “straw buyer”. There are lots of scams involving “straw buyers” and they are relatively easy to track. These tra”innsactions almost certainly would have to focus on properties where the deed owner is not in possession. Why, when the “innocent” third party buyer paying money to the scammer tries to take possesion, they will see the real owner. The real owner can defend against the “innocent” purchaser. In short, if your deed is forged, you have the chance to prove that in an action against the person who pays the scammer. The person who pays the scammer, may be able to sue the title insurance company that closes the sale. So I just told you that t the smart scammer will target properties that are not owner-occupied. – BUT THAT’S NOT WHOM HOME TITLE LOCK IS TARGETING. This company is targeting ordinary homeowners who live in their homes. Now at the closing with the innocent purchaser putting up money, the only way the scammer gets paid, the scammer has to present id that is suitable for notarization. You have to generate a fake identity for every deal you close. That’s a lot of work.
In my opinion, it is not a good investment to pay Mortgage Title Lock $9.95/month to protect your home title. I think they are selling fear to gullible (often elderly) targets. I don’t have any legal action against this company, nor am I planning any. Hopefully, they won’t be into most of their customers more than about $100 before the customers realize that maybe there are better ways to spend money.
So to answer the question I posed in the title, is Home Title Lock legitimate? Well, I don’t have any reason to doubt that they monitor public records, so to that end they probably are legitimate. On the other hand, I have my doubts about the scope of the problem that they claim to be guarding against. That’s why I wouldn’t give the company any of my money.
