Last updated June 2024
Last updated June 2024
For some years, the shady places of the internet have hidden a big threat, known under the name of home title theft. It is a cybercrime that targets property owners or people who own any equity. In this article, I will briefly explain home title theft, if it is a big problem, and how criminals steal your property title.
The concept of home title fraud may be confusing to grasp, and it’s understandable. Property ownership gives you a safe and stable place to live and access to essential resources that are beneficial for wealth management, credit development, and financial planning. But you may now wonder, how does someone steal your home? They cannot steal it like a wallet, so how does it end up in their possession? The answer is quite simple: cyber scammers transfer property ownership from your name to their name by creating fake documents. That is why they end up owning the house while the actual owner still lives in the house. The most often targets are the senior citizens and people with multiple estates across the country that are not inhabited.
All of this can happen due to data leaks, meaning that through different methods of stealing data, the scammer obtains information about you and uses them to commit the fraud. They go to the recorder of deeds at the local courthouse and file paperwork in your name, falsify your signature, and make themselves owners of the property. Thus, the scammer becomes your home owner and can do whatever they want with it.
According to the FBI, home title theft is now one of the biggest concerns in the cybersecurity business. In the year 2020, title theft has reached almost $550 million worth of frauds, according to the Journal of World Economic Research. That is why the FBI has classified this crime as an online crime since it comes under identity theft, whereas the FTC states that it is the biggest threat consumers face.
California is an estate that has beautiful and expensive houses and many residential neighborhoods. That is why criminals are perpetrating and attacking many homeowners from California in growing numbers. According to the FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report, more than 450,000 complaints of cybercrime have been reported, having a loss of more than $3.5 billion.
Thus, this issue should not be disregarded because it is a big problem and can have huge consequences.
As I have said before, home title theft means stealing private information, and this can happen in many ways, including phishing, hacking your Wi-Fi, looking through your trash, or stealing your mail.
Phishing means cyber criminals send out links or emails that urge you to do something. They often look very legitimate, which is why many people fall under this trick. By accessing these links, you download malware capable of mining your computer for personal information that can help them steal your identity. They can also pretend to be someone you know and ask you to offer them information about your accounts. Thus, never access links that you received from untrusted sources.
Since most Wi-Fi are not very secure, with the one you use at home, hackers see this as the perfect opportunity to sneak in and send out malware that will access your data and transfer the information from your device to theirs. That is one of the reasons why this type of hacking is very loved and common among cybercriminals. If you want to be precautious and ensure you are safe, consider adding a VPN that will protect your Wi-Fi and keep the hackers away.
While this may be an old method, identity thieves still practice it. This means that they search through your garbage and look for old bills or bank statements that will give them information about your credit cards and personal information that will help them commit title theft. That is why breaking or shred all the invoices you receive into many pieces is important to ensure this does not happen.
Another way of obtaining information about you is to steal your mail from your mailbox. That is why picking up your mail as quickly as possible is important. The same thing can happen with your email. If you don’t have many authorization steps, a cybercriminal can easily hack your account and steal personal and financial information. So, add as many authorization steps as possible to keep this from happening.
Thus, as you can see, getting access to your information is quite easy if you don’t protect it, offering the scammers the opportunity to take everything from you.
California is a gorgeous state that can offer you many opportunities. However, with all of this also comes the threat of cyberattacks that could steal the ownership of your property, leaving you empty-handed. Cybercriminals are attracted to California more than ever. They are going after the homes here because it is considered that this state is one of the most expensive states in the entire country.
That is why scammers take great advantage of homeowners who have difficulty keeping up with their mortgage payments, people with more than one property, or senior citizens. Thus, be sure to carefully avoid people interested in your financial information and reject any offers you might receive regarding loan modification. These can be signs that someone is trying to get you as much information about your property title and can easily turn you into a victim of home title theft.
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