How To Steal Money At Register And Get Away With Ut

An 11Alive investigation finds the hard truth is when information technology comes to stealing a dwelling house, information technology'south not that difficult.

ATLANTA — Thieves are stealing Homes nationwide through identity fraud, and information technology'south happening in Atlanta, where the marketplace is hot. But there are means to protect yourself from this criminal offense.

"Prime belongings, prime property," Leonard Beckett said about his habitation in the West End neighborhood.

"My grandmother purchased the house for $6,000 in 1970. The firm is now worth as is without the remodeling about $280,000," he said.

Once the renovations are done, he estimates that value will leap to $700,000. Merely a few years ago, someone tried to steal the home from his grandmother past trying to pay her taxes. It was the first pace fraudsters took to try and steal her human action.

Beckett said they failed, but his grandmother would have lost everything if they had succeeded.

"Someone would have been over hither trying to evict her from her house that she's owned since 1970," he said.

How it happens

This offense isn't new, just the FBI sent a contempo alarm. Hither's how information technology happens: Con artists pick a business firm, assume the homeowner's identity with simulated identification, forge signatures on official paperwork and file information technology. So, they ain the abode.

Fulton Canton Clerk Cathelene Robinson said at that place aren't records of how often this is happening in her county, just it is happening. That'southward why Fulton County launched a program chosen R.E.A.A.C.T.

"It allows you the opportunity to react if there is something filed against your property," Robinson said. "If y'all don't take this tool, and something is filed in our office, you will non have the ability to react if something is filed."

Robinson said it works like alerts for suspicious spending on credit cards. Once the property is registered online with the county, the owner would get an alert whatsoever time someone tries to file something tied to that habitation.

There are hundreds of thousands of homes in Fulton Canton. So far, merely 354 backdrop are registered.

"We're hoping that this story with your help will actually increase the numbers because information technology is a very small number of people who have registered," Robinson said.

She said the program works. It'south already sent 94 filing alerts.

"The clerk has to record it"

"Yous can just come up in and say I'm the owner, and here's my ID that says I'm the owner," Ned Blumenthal said, an attorney and partner with Weissman Law.

Blumenthal said if a habitation is paid off, there is no mortgage company scammers have to get through. They have to find a way to obtain the deed. What makes things fifty-fifty easier for con artists is the law.

"Every bit long equally yous accept a deed that'south properly notarized and been witnessed, information technology's got original signatures things like that, and then as long as you pay the money, the clerk has to tape it," Blumenthal said.

That means if someone can falsify documents and bring them to the clerk's role, they can obtain the deed. In Georgia, the clerk has no legal reason to refuse it.

Blumenthal said Georgia probable would never change its laws because that would put a lot of burden on homeowners.

"The tradeoff is that every homeowner has to provide a lot of information," Blumenthal said.

Protecting your home

Instead, he echoed the county's message: Sign up for R.Eastward.A.A.C.T. That's what Beckett did.

"Information technology'south really helpful," he said. "Gave me peace of heed."

Peace of mind in an increasingly expensive and competitive housing market is priceless.

Read more and sign upwards for Fulton county'southward R.E.A.C.C.T. program on their website.

If your county doesn't offer this program, Blumenthal said there are alert signs to await out for.

He said if revenue enhancement bills or utility bills stop showing up, those are potential warning signs. He also suggested that homeowners check the act records once or twice a yr to see if anyone has filed annihilation related to their holding.